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MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT 
HONORABLE RICHARD BRINSLET SHERl- 
DAX. Bj' Thomas Moore. Two volumes in 
one. 12mo., cloth, g-old and black, with steel 
portrait. $1.50. 

SKETCHES OF THE IRISH BAR. By the 
Rig-ht Honorable Richard Lalor Shiel, M. P., 
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with steel portrait. $1.50. 

THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE 
JOT IX PHILPOT CURRAN, late Master of the 
Rolls in Ireland. By his son, William Henry 
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Mackenzie, D. C. L. 12mo., cloth, gold nnd 
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PERSONAL SKETCHES OF HIS OWN 
TIMES. By Sir Jonah Barrington. Judge of 
the High Court of Admirality in Ireland, etc., 
etc. 12mo., cloth, gold and black, with illustra- 
tions by Darley. $1.-50, 

'98 and '48. THE MODERN REVOLUTION- 
ARY HISTORY AND LITERATURE OFIRE- 
LAND. By John Savn go. Fourth Edition, 
Avith an Appendex and Index. 12mo., cloth, 
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BITS OF BLARNEY. Edited by R. Shelton 
Mackenzie. I). C. L., Editor of Shiel's Sketches 
of the Irish Bar, etc. 12mo., cloth, gold and 
black. $1.50. 



'98 AND '48 



THE MODERN 



REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY 



AND LITERATURE 



OIP lE.ElIli.^Vl^ID. 



By JOHN SAVAGE. 



'Here is a mourniug Rome, a dangerous Rome." 

, Shakespeare. 



'Her virtues are her own — her vices have been forced upon uer." 

' ' Robert Holmes. 



FOURTH EDITION, WITH AN APPEISDIX AND INDEX. 



CHICAGO: 

Union Catholic Publishing Company, 
mdccclxxxii, 






^ ' ."'luANUFACTURED BY 

o^^- DoNOHUE & Henneberry, 

V.' ", CHICAGO. 




^Z''2'^t^ 



TO 



THE MEMORY 



MY F A^ T H E K 

WITH DEEPEST LOVE AND VENERATION 
I INSCRIBE THIS VOLUME, 

HE WAS THE SON OF A UNITED IRISHMAN OF '98, 
,^Tifr rOJXOWjiD THE MI9F0RTDNES OF '48 INTO F.XTIK. 



THE AUTHOR. 



/ 



(y^CV^^ 



a 



/ 




CONTEITTS 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKis. 

PAGl 

HiSTORi 111 General, and the Case of Ireland in Particular — O'Connell versus 
Jefferson — Yo">"r Ireland— " Poor Ireland "—Her History in the Emigrant 
Depots and Streets, ix. — xx. 



THE ORATOR AND THE ORGANIZER, WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 

National Ideas— Theories of Irish Nationality— Grattan, his Yoath— Imitations 
of Pope- -( riticism on Pope — Grattan's Residence In London — Day-dreaming 
and Ni^;-r walkir.;^— Entert the Irish Commons— Tlie Men and the Time — 
Flood, Hiissey Burgh, Yelverton, Denis Daly, the Ponsonltys, A . ?r..ace, 
fcipaiu, J !rica— Grattan circumscribes himself within " The K. i^ Lords, 
and Commons" — "Ireland for the Irish, God Save the Queen" — Grattan 
enters the British Commons, and pares the knobs off his club — Tone, hia 
Youth, College Days, f nd Marriage — The Law — Pamphleteering — 
Early Opinions — Address or- the War with Spain — Quotations therefrom — 
Grattan and Tone — Michtlet on " liberal " Europeans — Coal £5 a Ton — Was 
the "Independent" Irish Farliament Indepen lent ?— Position of Protestants, 
Dissenters, and Catholic?r— Tone in the Catholic Cause — Founds the Society of 
United Irishmen — Tone and Tandy — Growth of Uaited Irishism-— Rev. Wm. 
Jackson, his Arrest and Death— Tone Exiled to America— Returns to France 
— His Labors there, and Tliree Expeditions— Capture and Death — Grattan 
and Alexander Hamilton, Tone and Thomas Jefferson— Analysis of Grattan 
and Tone, , 28-62 



THE ^YEXFORD CAMPAIGN OF '98. 

Btate of the County Wexford Previous to the Rising — Nature and Character of 
the People — Intolerance of the Wexford Volunteers — Orangeisra Introduced 
by the No'th Cork Militia — Wexford under Martial Law — TheYecmen — Tor« 

5 



VI CONTENTS. 



TKGt 

tures — General Abercrombie Resigns — Musgiave Whips a Whiteboy — Mus- 
grave and Lord Cornwallis — Massacres at Dunlavin and Carnew — Retribu- 
tion — Father Murphy, of Boolavogue, takes the Field — War in the Pulpit, 
and a Colonel in a Cassock — Battle of Oulart Hill — Father Murphy " a Fana- 
tic"— Progress of the Insurgents — Storming of Enuiscorthy — Arrest of Har- 
vey, Colclough, and Fitzgerald — Fight near Three Rock Mountains — General 
Fawcett's "quick-step" backwards — Wexford Town Surrendered to the Insur- 
gents — Harvey Commander-in-Chief — Insurgent Camps — Captain Keugh.and 
his Little Republic— Priests Kearns and Redmond at Newtownbarry — Battle 
of Tubberneering— Priest Roche defeats Col. Walpole — Loyalist Account of 
it — Desperate Battle of New Ross — Plunder and Drink — The Peasantry " die 
happy" — Scullabogue — Gordon on the Atrocities of the Soldiers — Blood will 
have Blood — General Roche's Proclamation— Father Roche CommandexMn- 
Chief of the " Rebels"— Battle of Arklow— Father Michael Murphy dies Fight- 
ing — Sanguinary Spirit of the Priests —Rebel Movements at Borris, Tinehaly, 
Lacken — Massacre on Wexford Bridge — Fight at Fookes' Mill — Great Combi- 
nation of Royalist Forces — Twenty Thousand Men, and Nine General Officers 
— Battle of Enniscorthy — The Forlorn Hope at Vinegar Hill — Surrender 
of Wexford — No Terms with the " Rebels" — Importance of the Wexford Cam- 
paign — Gallantry of the " Rebels " — Deductions and Warnings, . . 65-llC 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPII. 

Men of Wexford, Modern Menapians — General Lake and Lord Kingsborough 
Decoy the "Rebel" Chiefs— Father Roche, Keugh, Colclough, Bagnal Harvey, 
Cornelius Grogan, hanged— Lord Kingsborough a Thief— Executions— Cap- 
ture and Death of John Kelly and Esmoade Kyan— Kelly's Head a Foot-ball 
— Christianity and Progress — The Trail of Blood — Retreat of the Wexford 
Men Out of Wexford — Murphy, of Boolavogue, still with Arms in his Hands — 
At Scollagh Gap— Burns Killedmond— Victorious at Goresbridge— at Cas- 
tlecomer — Surprised in a Fog on Kilcomney Hill — Massacre — Retreat — Murphy 
Hanged at Tullow — Still on the Trail — Fight at Hacketstown — Near Carnew 
— Discomfitures— Fight at Ballygullen — William Aylmer, Edward Fitzgerald, 
Garret Byrne, and their Expeditions — Anthony Perry and Father Kearns 
Hanged — About Kearns — Rebel Generals force the Government to Terms, 119-148 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 

List of Leading Members of the United Irish Society — Pi-ogress of the Society 
\ from "Reform" to " Revolution "—A Gallery of Rebels— Hamilton Rowan- 
Thomas Russell, Character and Death — Rev. W. Steele Dickson, Henry Joy 
McCracken, and the Battle of Antrim, His Character and Death— Henry 
Munroe, and the Battle of Ballinahiuch, His Character and Death— Lord 
Edward Fitzgerald, Career and Character— Doctor John Esmonde, Character 



CONTENTS. VU 



and Death— William Putnam McCabe, His Remarkable Career— Disguises, 
Escapes, and Death — James Hope, the "Weaver — Rev. Denis Taafe— Watty 
Cox, and Dr. Brennan— Edward Molloy, of Rathangan— The "Northern 
Star," and " Press," and their Writers — Samuel Neilson, Doctor Drennan, the 
Sheares's, Deane Swift, William Preston, T. Addis Emmet, O'Connor, Samp- 
son, and others— Robert Emmet, His Career and Death— List of Men in His 
Conspiracy, 151-218 



BARON PLUNKET. 

The Voice of Death and the Voice of War— Plunket lived Fifty Years too Long 
— His Inconsistency — His Game — Plunket in 1800 in the Commons — In 1803 
in the Court Prosecuting Emmet — The Brutality of His Speech in the Latter 
—Charles Phillips on Plunket— Plunket made Solicitor-General — "Sneers 
Down" Daly in the Commons — Shell's Opinion of Plunket — A Life in a Para- 
graph — No Apology — Character of His Intellect — Imbecility — Death, . 221- 



YOUNG IRELAND.— DANIEL O'CONNELL AND JOHN MITCHEL. 

How Posterity treats men — Difference between O'Connell and Mitchel — Three 
points in O'Connell's career — Richard Lalor Sheil, his career and writings — 
Character of his eloquence, compared with that of O'Connell — The latter sends 
Michael Doheny on a confidential mission to Sheil — Catholic Emancipation — 
Its effects — Popular frenzy — A caged eagle — Singing old ditties — Repeal Asso- 
ciation — Young Ireland — Thomas Davis — Library of Ireland — Death of Davis, 
Opinions on him — Thomas Francis Meagher — Mitchel's " Aodh O'Neill" — 
Mitchel's Birth, Youth and Marriage — Joins the " Nation " — The uses of Rail- 
ways — Prosecution — Holmes's defence — "Old" and "Young" in the " Hall" 
— Differences — Meagher's thunderbolt at the Whigs —Politics in England, Ben- 
tinck, Peel, D'Israeli, Russell- O'Connell falls into a Whig trap — Meagher 
sounds the tocsin of War — Tom Steele — R. O'Gorman, M. J. Barry and Mitchel 
on Whig Alliance — "Juvenile Orators" — Tories out of, Whigs in OflBce — 
Dungarvan Election, John Dillon's opinion — O'Connell in the Hall — Dun- 
garvan sold to the Whigs — Peace Resolutions — Lord John Russell, O'Con- 
nell's authority against Young Ireland — A marked line between "Young" 
and " Old " — Squire Topertoe in the " Hall " — The debate — Meagher's 
Speech— Mitchel on' 76 and '82— A "drop of blood"— Smith O'Brien and 
Father John Kenyon— John O'Connell — Secession — Remonstrance Committee 
— Great Meetings in the Rotunda, notes of the Speeches — Bishop Blake and 
O'Connell — Irish Confederation formed — Mitchel's Speech — Death of O'Con- 
nell — Character of his power — Ireland his Mistress, not his Wife — A " Great 
Medicine " — Dust to the desert — Kenyon on O'Connell — Pikes vers7is Peti- 
tions, Mitchel-s prayer for the "royal, yet vulgar soul— Land Tenures— Con- 
cuiation Hall, Irish Council — Mitchel's labors — Beneficial Measures of the 



' ai CONTElfTS. 

Vhigs — Mitphel's Speech an Agrarian Outrage — The Confederation — He leaves 
Ae "Nation" — Mr. Duffy — Causes of quarrel — T. Devin Reilly leaves the 
"Nation" — The Agitator's legacy — The "United Irishman" and its success 
— A barn better than a royal house — The paper in the House of Lords — 
Case of Ireland's starvation— The Remedy— The Clergy— European Revolu- 
tions incite the Confederation— Arrest of Mitchel, O'Ericn and Meagher, 
Bail accepted — Popular sympathy — Limerick banquet and riot — Treason- 
Felony act — Mitchel arrested— State of the town and Clubs — The trial — '98 
and '48, Holmes's defence of Mitchel — Mitchel in the Dock — " Promise for 
me " — Banishment — Holmes's defiance — Mitchel and Carlyle — O'Connell 
and Mitchel — The " Irish Tribune " and " Irish Felon " — Seizure of the 
National Organs, and arrest of John Martin, C. Gavan Duffy, Kevin 
O'Doherty, R. D'Alton Williams — Tlie City of Dublin in state of siege — 
Protestant Repeal Association — Meagher in Watei'ford, Doheny in 
Cashel — Down with the barricades — The leaders in the mountains — 
Ballingarry, Killenaule, Glenbower, Portlaw, Rathgormuck — The Priests 
of '98 and '48 — Arrests of O'Brien, Meagher, O'Donohoe, McManus — 
John Martin in the Dock — O'Doherty in the Dock — " Shamrock " Williams 
Acquitted, His Genius and Writings — Smith O'Brien, His Career and Charac- 
ter- -In the Dock — McManus in the Dock — Meagher, His Career, Nature of 
Hi-s Eloquence — Speech In the Dock — James FentonLalor — Dillon — O'Gorman 
— ^Doheny — Joseph Brenan — Dr. Antisell — John O'Mahony, and others — List 
of State Prisoners of '48, 243-355 



THOMAS DEVIN REILLY. 

His Youth — A Revolutionist — Joins the " Nation" — Writes Himself into a Front 
Rank— On Tom Steele— On the Miltonian Theory— " Artful Cecil"— Reilly 
Leaves the " Hall " — The " Road Before Us" — Friendship between Mitchel 
and Reilly — Extracts from Reilly's Speeches— His Writings in " United Irish- 
man and " Felon" — Arrested — Escapes to America, with Rags and Melan- 
choly — Finds out Judge Ejimet— "The People" — Uncertainty; Walks and 
Talks — Music and Tears — " Protective Union," and Marriage — Writings in 
"American Review" — George N. Sanders, Reilly, D. W. Holly, and "Demo- 
cratic Review" — Old Fogy Trepidation — The Review the rage— Birth of 
"Young America," its Sponsors — Reilly on Naturalization — In Washington — 
Letters — Absorbed in Politics— Death — Public Expression of Sympathy — 
The End 8o9-i 



INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS, 



HISTORY IN GENERAL, AND THE CASE OF IRELAND IN 
PARTICULAR. 

"History is tlie essence of innumerable biographies;" so saith 
Carlyle. The truth of this is probably never more manifest 
than in the chronicle of a revolutionary struggle ; or, as exhibited 
in the annals of a people constantly engaged in an agitation to 
effect the supremacy of a national will as the ruling trust of the 
governing power. 

In such movements, the leading spirits, the popular rulers — 
which does n©t always mean the actual rulers — the men who 
are appointed to, or take the helm, are those who enjoy the 
largest amount of confidence, and whose acts are assented to in 
a sufficiently palpable manner, by masses of their fellow-meu — 
who exhibit in their persons, by their skill, courage, and deter- 
mination, the wants and wishes of the multitude — whom the 
multitude, by an individuality of opinion, identify as holding 
and pronouncing their desires and ideas, and as shaping the 
latter into an argumentative tangibility. These men so placed 

\^ 9 



X INTRODUCTOKY EEMAEKS. 

are, therefore, not so much the leaders as they are the followers 
of the jDeople. Tliey may indicate the wants of the people, or 
dictate measures for their redress; but without the necessity in 
the first place, there would be no indication or dictation. As 
they thus measure, or administrate for, the populace, they are 
the essence of it, and their lives fill the history of the times. 

So is it ; the life of Tell is the history of the liberation of 
Switzerland. The lives of Eieuzi and Tomas Anniello unfold 
more of the glory, intrigues, fickleness, and fate of Italy, in their 
times, than if the chronicles of the Colonna, Orsini, Guelph, 
Ghibelhne, and a score of such, were lingering on the lips of the 
four winds of heaven. How much of European history is there 
not due to Luther ; and in a later day, how much is there not 
centered on, and absorbed by ISTapoleon. In Columbus's life, as 
in a Banquo mirror, the startled muse of history beheld a new 
inspiration, an almost bewildering occupation — an extending 
cavalcade of events and men; and in George Washington's 
biography we peruse the history of American Independence. 

Tlie spirit of the Man of the day, is the history of all those 
of whom he is the centre ; for in him are centered all their hopes 
and feai's. 

From the creation of the world to the present time, mark each 
mighty epoch : come over those beacons as you would stepping- 
stones in an unfordable stream — come over them steadily, and 
observe the indentations made by the stream of time, and you 
have passed thrsugh the brain of centuries, and grasped the 
history of the world. 

History is the cable by which Time fastens the thoughts and 
actions of his particular eras to their proper moorings. If of the 
time gone by, it is the golden or iron link with the present; and 



INTEODUCTOKY REMARKS. XI 

if of the iDi-esent, it is the monument which Truth piles up to the 
nobleness, worth, heroism, or genius of the era — it is the golden 
recompense of the day, or the black warning for the future, and 
its study must ever form one of the most intellectual resources 
of, and attractive influences on man. If true to its province, it 
shall include all provinces of literature. It sliall present all the 
amusement and interest of fiction ; for the romantic realities of 
one thousand brains in their strife with the world, present more 
startling incidents and conflicting scenes than the imagination of 
one brain could ever produce. It shall combine all the charm 
and instruction of biography ; for it is nothing more or less than 
a picking of the grains from the chaff — the raising of a good and 
stately edifice from the choice materials of a thousand indifferent 
mansions. It shall be full of the grandeur of epic verse ; for the 
record of everything noble in man, or extensive and beautiful in 
nature, is hallowed with poetry. The feeling, identification, and 
appreciation, is poetry, whether it be dashed off in rugged prose, 
or meted out in syllables harmonious. Poetry is not a jingle, 
fighting through eight or ten syllables of a line, like a bell tolling 
in a church -tower, at the end of the rope that pulls it, but it is 
the thought to explain which it is there. When the bell tolls a 
death-knell, we do not think of the means by which it is rung, 
or how far it is from the ground. There is poetry in it then. 
We identify ourselves with its purpose — we unconsciously thrill, 
chilly, at its unearthly tone. The very ivy leaves on the belfry 
tremble suspiciously, unlike their gay flutter on a marriage 
morn. The tombstones, which every day looked mere blocks of 
marble, now are dis-entombed portions of that which is beneath, 
come up to tell their pedigrees to the new-comer. There, then, 
is the poetry, the feeling, the identification ; and there is not a 



3ai INTRODUCTORY RiaiARKS. 

living tiling but which, truly appreciated, contains more poetry 
than ever Ossian thought or Shakspere wrote. 

Upon these general principles, and under their influences, the 
present volume has been written. 

The eras of which it treats are illustrated by their leading ideas, 
which, in turn, are illustrated by the men who either combined 
those ideas on paper, or fought for them in the field. The work 
is a history, if being the condensed " essence of innumerable 
biographies " can make it one ; but on the other hand, it is, more 
properly speaking, a series of historical essays, in so far as the 
Author, while giving tlie facts which make history, has taken 
representative men whose lives, he believes, were at once the 
consequence of the bad government of the day, and of the move- 
ments set on foot to either correct its evils, or overturn it 
altogether — and through and by them has given pictures of the 
respective periods. 

The views of character, and critical and political deductions 
given throughout the book, of course present the writer's esti- 
mate of men and movements; based on the facts stated, and 
guided by the principles w^hich he believes to be true and just, 
and alone of vital importance to the subject under notice. 

Believing that either of two things should be adopted by 
Irishmen — to chalk out a Republican line, and walk it, or to 
give up agitation altogether ; and having adopted the first course, 
the Author has consistently condemned those who have wasted 
the energies of the people by directing a means without the man- 
liness of either. 

Irishmen must come out in the broad daylight, or sit passive 
in abysmal night. The twilight only creates fantasies that em 
barrass, and induces a stealthiness that makes cowards. It 



INTEODUCTORY EEMAB^KS. Xlll 

produces physical and moral trepidation, under the influence of 
which minor things receive a shadowy importance, and major 
ones expand to such a fearful extent as to only inspire hopeless- 
ness and groping despair. 

This twihght of the people is the morning glory of the politi- 
cian. His is the voice that sounds in the darkness. "While they 
pay him for seeing the light, the people forget they are groping 
in dismay. He toils in their cavernous gloom, as the fabled 
gnomes grope for gold and precious stones in the darkness of 
mid-earth. Like the diamonds, the peaple do not know, nor 
cannot see, tlieir own brightness — a very brightness by which 
both are made manifest to politician and gnome. 

These politicians have " laughed and grown fat " for years, 
while in exact ratio with the clamor they raised about making 
the country fit to live in, have the people, haggard and miserable, 
wended their weary steps away from it, a walking commentary 
on "agitation." 

The writer believes the whole career of O'Oonnell to have 
been — to use the mildest term— a brilliant error. His teaching 
was all wrong, and productive of nothing but Repeal rent and 
petitions. He constantly charged the British Government with 
greater enormities, both in chfirycter and number, against his 
country, than a Jefferson could condense into a dozen Declarations 
of Independence ; but even "a decent respect for the opinion of 
mankind " could neither drive his body, nor philosophize his 
mind into such a position as that by w hich *' life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness " are won. 

It comes to this — if Jefferaon was light, O'0onp«ll was wrong. 
They are as opposite as day and night. Their principles are 
irreconcilable. Either must be wrong, both cannot be right If 



XIV INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

Irishmen in America have reason to bless Jefferson, Irishmen in 

Ireland for the same reason should not bless O'Connell. 

With regard to that party which in latter days arose on the 
national side of Irish pohtics, which did believe in the abstract 
ideas of Jefferson, and consequently brought down the ire of tJie 
British Government in a manner not exercised for fifty years, a 
few words are here necessary in review. 

The members of that party were men who could have entered 
the army or navy, and won distinction ; who, in their profes- 
sions, certainly would have earned reputation, if not fortune, at 
the bar, in the laboratory, in the studio ; who, applying their 
clear intelligence, unruffled by politics, would have risen in mer- 
cantile status, and brought a vigor to mechanical pursuits which 
would have insured ease and success. Such men they were, as 
with the axe, the shuttle, the pestle, the pencil or the pen in 
hand, form the soul and sinew of society, enriching it as well by 
the products of the brain, as the energy of the hand. 

They were not enamored with politics, but they worshipped 
Ireland. They had nothing to gain; much to lose. They were 
unbought by the pence of the people, or the bribes of the Crown ; 
for they were ecjually unpurchasable to both. 

The very ftict that young men were found ready to give up 
every chance of personal aggrandizement — to quit all the allure- 
ments which so affect the senses, and disaffect the morals of 
their age — to shut down the panel that divided them from the 
dazzling excitements of society — from the gayety, the smiles, the 
beauty, the fairy fingers, the almost irresistible incantations that 
weave spells over young minds, and make old ones young — ready 
to forget fortune, shun peace, sunder the links of family, scoff at 
the golden prospects of court favor, and fling themselves before 



INTRODUCTOEY KEMARKS. XV 

and around the weeping fig-ure of their country, when she was 
disgraced and sneered at, is in itself something which gives a 
character to the modern history of the ishxnd, and alone relieves 
its rayless condition during the present century. 

Young Ireland was "legally and constitutionally" banished 
and exiled, but not defeated. Young Ireland did revolutionrz« 
the country. It gave it a new Hterature, to warn the old, and 
to educate tlie young generation. It trampled to the dust tii4' 
dogmas that enslave; and held up to the scorn of the world thi 
political routine tliat effaces true nationality, and disgraces eve'r 
its sham representative. It swung the sling against the recog' 
nized Goliah of the time, and felled him. It took up the haa'pi ' 
of Drennan, and struck its choi'ds with fingers passionate with"' 
an increase of half a century's disgrace, and half a century's 
ambition. 

It actually groped its way through the fog of " Emancipation;'^' 
and dared to look upon the "legal and constitu'-ional" graves 
and scaffolds of illegal and unconstitutional priests and laymen 
— the Roches and Tones of '98. It had the daring to win sec-' 
tional Ulster back to the national position it assumed under 
Munroe and McCracken. 

It accomplished much arduous labor — gave an impetus to 
Irish art and manufacture, pushed the history of the country 
into the studios of the one, and exhibited in a hundred points of 
view the necessities and resources of the other. It seduced the 
young tradesman from the tavern, and the young professional 
man from the gambling-house. The laborer began to think he 
was living for something under the words of cheer it uttered. 
The tenant became more sel'f-reliant, the agriculturist more ex- 
perimental, the landlord more fearful of his head. 



XVI INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

These things young Ireland effected. 

In issuing a work, devoted to revohitionary reminiscences 
like the present, some argument relating to periods anterior to 
those treated of, showing the causes which induced the popular 
movements, is generally looked upon as a necessity. Some case 
is; generally made out to defend the revolutionists, or qualify 
their provocation. In the present instance the writer thinks 
"Otherwise. 

'co' It is quite unnecessary to state the case of Ireland now. It 
,'t-as been done often and well — proved by Molyneux, Swift, Lucas, 
Flood, Grattan, and Holmes, upon English constitutional grounds, 
that Ireland, while under the rule of England, was outside the 
p-cde of its constitution. The greatest English jurists have been 
brought to evidence the fact ; atid the standard law books of the 
empire remain witness of its injustice to the ''sister isle." 

The question of Ireland's wrongs, or the causes tliat led to its 
,'t rebellions," needs no explanation. And this, too, in the teeth 
of the truism, that the English press has had for years the ready 
ear of the world. It is an insult to the common sense and the 
.i" sympathy " of the world to state the case of Ireland. 
•■'- Generations after generations have been born with the words, 
" poor Ireland," on their lips, and have died uttering the same 
monotonous but suggestive syllables. The present generation 
see no reason to change the tune, which, with every variety of 
vocal intonation, haunts the Irishman in every nook and cranny 
of the wide, wide earth. Spoken in whatsoever language, it is 
unmistakable to the most ignorant Celt. Like, the last trumpet, 
there is but one sound, but it is intelligible beyond all 
others. 

"Poor Ireland" — ^it blusters and moans in every roar and 



INTBODUCTORY REMARKS. XVH 

sough of the wind that disperses or tangles the cloudy fringes, 
bringing day and night to every climate of the globe. It bellies 
the sails of every ship that wanders over ocean. The lordly 
trees that shiver before the emigrant axe in primeval forests, 
fall, a memento of " poor Ireland." The kitchen garden, skirting 
the log-cabin, looks up through the clearing, and smiles, " poor 
Ireland," in the face of Heaven. The railroad, with its millions 
of sleepers indicates the words, and the engine that rattles over it, 
at every gust of smoke, seems to belch them out. The words 
are raised into monumental stone and statue, as well in France, 
Spain, Austria, in the Poet's Corner of Westminster, under St. 
Paul's, New York, as in St. Patrick's, Dublin. AVlier ever there is 
a poet's corner, or a pauper grave-yard, you will meet the words, 
"poor Ireland," 

" Poor Ireland ! " Under several signatures which pledged 
their owner's "lives, fortunes, and sacred honors," to the De- 
claration of American Independence, the words are written. 

The names of Andrew Jackson, Calhoun, Carroll, Barry, and 
Stewart, in American history, suggest " poor Ireland " almost as 
vividly as those of Tone and Emmet. The same cause tliat sent 
the former " abroad," hanged the latter " at home." 'Tis thus 
New Orleans avenges Vinegar Hill. 

" Poor Ireland ! " Statesmen pronounce the words with sen- 
timental emphasis; demagogues tear them to tatters. From 
legislative bench to pot-house beer-barrel, they are common 
property. They are in every ink-bottle, and no pen splashes in 
writing them. They are sneered at, jeered at, laughed at, 
quaffed at, and used without moderation, both by friends and 
foes; sometimes having little interest, most times with no prin- 
ciple, but generally with considerable profit. They are put into 



XVI 11 INTKODUCTOKY REMARKS. 

ballot-boxes by the tlionsand, and lead millions by the nose. 
The idler uses them to live off the Irishman who has amassed 
wealth. The artful use them to win service from the poor. 

" Poor Ireland ! " The united words were the parents of 
" Old Ireland " and "Young Ireland;" the resource of the one, and 
the inspiration of the other. They are the disgrace of some 
Irishmen, and the glory of others, but disgrace or glory, the fact 
is recognized, and thus is the case of Ireland stated. 

State the case of Ireland in this year of our Lord, when emi- 
grant depots, like fortifications, sentinel every great port on the 
Atlantic sea-board of America? Look into one of those depots 
There is an old woman. " Well ? " Well, there she is, at once 
the history of Ireland, and an epitome of London law. Her father 
was killed in '98, her son transported in '48, not having died 
like his younger brothers, of the famine in '46. Her daughter 
married a tradesman, who couldn't make " salt to his porridge ;" 
English capitalists have so inundated the Irish markets with 
clieap goods, manufactured by skeletons who exist on opium. 
Tc be sure, he wove a poplin ball-dress for Queen Victoria, and 
lived on the praises of " poor Ireland," which the shamrocks on it 
drew forth from the good Court Journal, but he couldn't live long 
on that, and they all managed somehow to get to America. Look 
at her, the poor shrivelled old creature ; her cheek, despite famine, 
fever, and grim necessity, still looking like a wrinkled rose-leaf, 
and a light beaming from her clear grey eye, indicating the 
vitality of her race. She sways backward and forward, hushing 
her grandchild to sleep, crooning the while with fitful modula- 
tions, suiting the babe's i-estlessness or quiet, some glorious old 
melody, to score which would make an Italian composer's 
fortune. 



INTKODUCTUKY REMARKS. XlX 

Stute the case of Ireland, indeed ? You have been in Broad- 
way during the past winter. You have seen that Irish army 
witli pick-axes and spades, clearing away the accumulated muddy 
snow and ice from the thorouglifare of tlie Republic. Well, 
every time the pick-axe sunk into the filth, it splashed "poor 
Ireland" into the face of the laborer. Every wagon-load — every 
shovel-full of the stuff" stated the case of Ireland. 

Ay ! that poor old woman — these thousands of stout shovel- 
lers, state the case of Ireland more clearly than if all the rags 
on their backs were made into paper, and covered with the facts 
and statistics of every writer on the subject, from Molyneux to 
Mitchel. 

While other countries have been completely sw^amped, or have 
risen into greatness, Ireland alone has remained pretty nearly 
the same way for years. Her great misfortune is, that she is 
ever ready for rebellion without getting ready. There is no 
counting on her appearance. She seems apathetic at present, 
but those who know her are aware that it is not her nature. 
Her fault is on the other side. She is excited too easily. She 
seems at present, to all outward appearance, stiff" and cold. But 
remember, when the Hudson river is frozen over, the current 
underneath but rolls the swifter for being pent up — there is cold 
ice atop — there is flashing fury beneath it. 

To speculate on her future is utter insanity. What she ought 
to be, is easily told. What she might be, every statesman and 
literateur, artist and agriculturist, knows full well. We may 
analyze her past — explain her present, but her future ? 

Let us never despair. If this volume produces a conviction 
on the mind of any Irish reader, which may lead him to give 
up agitation in toto^ or pursue it with resolute republicanism, 



XX INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS. 

unwarped by personal ambition, unsecluced by sectionality, and 
unblemished by bigotry, the Author will feel happy that he has 
made that man either a better friend to his family or his lacher- 
land. 

J. a 

Fayal OoUage, Long Mand. 
March Uth, 1866. 



V 



THE ORATOR AND THE ORGANIZER 

^V^OLFE TON'E AND HENRY GRATTAN. 






'NINETY- PLIGHT 



AND 



'FORTY-EIGHT. 



WOLFE TOl^E AND HENKY GR ATTAIN". 

It is to the latter half of the last century that the 
student of Irish history must look for the causes 
which, carrying their effects into, principally inspired 
the political movements that have agitated the middle 
of the century in which w^e live. To that period we 
must look for the first distinctive manifestation of 
those ideas which divide tliat portion of the Irish race 
claiming to be national at present. 

National ideas, by which I mean those principles 
which are at once the ready resource, as well as fun- 
damental reliance of great national parties, are never 
impromptu. They are the accumulation of years, 
the united offspring of many parents, the combina- 
tion of the best of the good, even as the attractive 



24 



juxtaposition of many stars formS' a constellation. 
The discoverer of a great idea or a continent, a star 
or a stream, has a pride, and is accorded by his fellow 
men a glory only less than that attached to the Power 
that created them ; because the discovery leads to the 
full appreciation of such creation. After the creation, 
the discovery of this continent of America is the 
proudest date in its history. After the beginning, 
when the heavens and the earth were created, " and 
the sj^irit of God moved upon the face of the waters," 
the next date is 1492. After Genesis, the Genoese. 
After God, Columbus. The very act of delivering 
it from the misty womb of ages, and its consequent 
acknowledgment by the world, paid the solemn debt 
due Nature for its conception, and indicated a path 
to those stupendous reforms and benefits, robed in the 
majesty of which we of this day and hour have a 
being, a manhood, and a purpose. 

ISTational ideas are the growth of time, and do not 
belong in reality to one period any more than the 
earth would bear fruits this year if there were not 
seeds placed on her bosom to suckle themselves into 
richness from the growth of the last. l^othing 
comes from nothing. And when great originality is 
attributed to one individual, who produces startling 
theories or profound practical plans, it accrues 
purely from the originality, the daring, or the subtlety 
of his combinations, the j)Ower with which he accu- 
mulates and purifies ; the practical energy with which 
he applies his reproductions to the wants of those 
whom he aspires to teach, and the capacity he there 



WOLFE TONE AND HENKY GRATTAN. 25 

unfolds, of sucli principles and ideas, to present tlie 
noblest, most satisfactory and revivifying medium for 
such people's redemption. Such men, with such 
powers, growing from and dignifying nationality, are 
like the blossoms of the century plant, and flower 
once in a hundred years. 

Thus, as the inspiration of Algernon Sidney who 
was "stiff to republican principles,"^ John Hampden, 
Eliot, and the republicans of the Cromwellian era, is 
visible in the thought and writings of the men who 
gave a tone and immortality to the pen-labor of the 
American Revolution : so the Irish movement of our 
day, may, with small effort, be traced to the combina- 
tions formed in the brains of Henry Grattan and Theo- 
bald Wolfe Tone; just as the popular men, who 
immediately preceded them in influence, the Lucases 
and Floods, adapted to their times, and to suit their 
capacities, the embers of the national flres ignited by 
the^orks of Molyneux and Swift in the preceding 
century. 

The theories of Irish Nationality, immortalized by 
the vehement agitation of Grattan, and the restless 
energy of Tone; by the active eloquence of the former, 
and the acted eloquence of the latter ; by the devoted 
passion of the one, and the passionate devotion of the 
other ; by the soaring life of the orator, and the mar- 
tyr death of the organizer: — ^These theories still divide 
what are known as Irish [NTationalists, in and out of 
Ireland. "Repeal" and "Republicanism" are the 

* Bishop Burnet. 

2 



26 

sliibboletlis under wliich tliey manifest themselves; 
nad "Old Ireland" and "Young Ireland," the le&s 
perspicuous clan-rally which designates either party. 

These facts suggested to me the propriety of 
placing those theories side by side. It appeared to me 
that it would not alone be highly beneficial to Irish, 
but to American sympathizers and readers, to see 
those men brou2:ht throuo^h the fitful and ever-gather- 
ii.g storm of Irish agitation — untombed, and placed 
" ashes to ashes," that the one class might view 
clearly, and with no sophisticated vision, what folds 
a. e in the flag they would unfuil — what meaning 
may be attached to their respective shibboleths ; and 
that the other class might thoroughly understand 
V hat has actuated, and actuates the sympathies and 
political animosities of a race with whom there is, 
and ought to be, at least one bond of fraternity, that 
of both being the sons of sires who, for the common 
cause of freedom, fought the common enemy of both. 

Henry Grattan was born in Dublin, on the third of 
July, 1746, and died in London, June, 1820. His 
sev^enty-four years of existence may be divided into 
three epochs: his youth and studentage ; his Irish 
parliamentary career ; his cai-eer in the English Par- 
liument. These divisions are the morning, noon, and 
night, embracing and filling his day. 

His morning opened bright and promising, gradu- 
ally became overcast, cloudy meditations and fitful 
glimpses of poetic light chasing each other, parting, 
co-mingling, now exhibiting dreariness, now delight, 
ard anon clearing up into a dazzling and almost 



WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 27 

oppressively glorious noon — an immortal noon, tlie 
sun of which stands still ; his night w^as subdued, but, 
borrowing some of the lustre which preceded it, was 
yet splendid. In childhood he displayed that anx- 
ious energy which so characterized his manhood : 
and the friends of his school-days, in after times, were 
proud to dwell on the promise which the develoj)- 
ment of his early nature made. 

In 1763 he entered Trinity College, and for the suc- 
ceeding four years, until he became a member of the 
Middle Temple, and went to London with the inten- 
tion of becoming a law^yer, the love of polite litera- 
ture appears to have taken serious possession of him ; 
and during this period he laid the foundation of that 
peculiar style w^iich tinges all he spoke or wrote. As 
Curran's mother used to lament that her son did not 
become a clergyman, there are some who appear to 
grieve that Grattan did not become a poet. " Oh 
Jacky, Jacky, w^hat a preacher was lost in you," 
Mrs. Curran used to say, in retrospective mouriangs 
that her son had not made his passionate and patri- 
otic appeals in a surplice instead of a lawyer's gown : 
and one of Grattan's commentators, Mr. Madden, 
alluding to the youth and natural tendencies of the 
future orator, thinks that " had he, in those days, 
bravely relied upon nature, and given us his own 
sympathies with her charms, the world might have 
had some fine poetry." But fortunately, or unfortu- 
nately, it matters little which, Alexander Pope and 
his poetry were the fashion ; and the ardent young 
Irishman, striving to imitate the elegant versifier, 



28 'ninety-eight A.ND ^^'ORTY-EIG^f . 

became, in his poetic mcocls, a veiy subservient an J 
vigorless follower. He was a shadow of the original, 
and not being a shadow of himself, could not put any 
life or motion into his verses. " The moment he 
came to write verse, he only could see with the eyes 
of Mr. Pope." Pope himself, a complete mirror of, as 
well as index to, the artificial manners, stilted chivalry, 
theatrical enthusiasm, and polished sentimentalism 
of the time, was anything but a suitable model for 
any literary pretensions, an Irish poetic spirit least of 
all. Faultless in all the mechanism of verse-making, 
elegant in his epithets, epigrammatic in antithetical 
effects, clear as filtered water, with logical precision, 
dignity of sentence, a frigidity of mannerism, and mo- 
notonously wearisome railroad sort of cadence, Pope, 
though giving English poetry the first useful polish 
it received, and perhaps, as De Quincey thinks, " the 
most brilliant of all wits who liave, at any period, 
applied themselves to the poetic treatment of human 
manners," was not one of those bounteously-freighted 
spirits of song, who can either stand out like a great 
statue for rapturous admiration, or spread, like a 
mighty tree, any sheltering arm over a youthful wor- 
shipper. He occupies Qvery place himself so much, 
that none ma}^ touch that place or topic in his fashion. 
While we read one of his poems, even his translations, 
we are more constantly reminded of Mr. Pope and his 
exquisite word-machinery, with his trap-doors that 
open and fall so smoothly, and the eternal sameness 
of the coloring of his side-scenes, and the steady glare 
or his footlights ; we are, I say, far more constantly 



WOLFE TONE ^ND HENRY GEATTAN. 29 

reminded of these than the subject enacted, of which 
thej were to be only the accessories, and Mr. Pope, 
so to speak, the prompter. It is no wonder, then, that 
Grattan conld not find a seat on the back of Pope's 
Pegasus. 

Grattan's correspondence at this period of his Kfe 
also disagreeably afi^ects us w^ith the artificial beauty 
of Pope's letters, wliich were written for the public 
eye, and in which, says the same shrew^d critic, I have 
alluded to, " every nerve w^as strained to outdo each 
other in carving all into a fillagree work of rhetoric."^" 
But through all the art and afifectation of style, the 
ardent flame of Grattan's native genius bursts up, and 
produces a better effect by the contrast. There w^as 
a great struggle between his genius and the prevail- 
ing taste, and of course his nature — receiving its gifts, 
not for a day, not to be put on or off, like tiiose gar- 
ments which hang on Fashion, that providence of 
parvenues — rose triumphant. His genius loomed up 
over the debilitated taste of the town, even as it shed 
a halo round the fragile frame through which he 
manifested his energy. Ilis nature, like the seven- 
league boots of the nursery fable, bore his frail body 
wdth giant strides above the common-places of imita- 
tion ; and soon finding, in the masterly powders and 
startling eloquence of Lord Chatham more congenial 
and commanding attraction, his style aspired beyond 
degrading the " dignity of rhetoric." 

Having lost a sister by death to whom, he was 

* p6 ^'uixicey's biographical Sssays. 



30 'kine,ty-eight and 

devotedly attaclied, lie, with a college companion, 
rented a house in Windsor Forest ; and here his 
soul, feeding npon melancholy, solitude, and natural 
scenery, three bounteous tenders to the though tfuL 
Grattan's mind expanded largely. His occupations 
were fitful, liis chief delight wandering through the 
forest, when the midnight moon, shining through the 
intertangled branches and foliage, wove a weird web 
of shadows around him, through which he struggled 
unconsciously, until he tired out his keeper, the moon, 
and the dawn and the birds awaked him from his 
reverie. His being was thoroughly unsettled at this 
time ; but, like an unsettled stream, it dashed wildly — • 
if noiselessly to the outside world — along, and carried 
with it many springs that poured their sparkling- 
beauty into it ; carried with it the vigor of its own 
momentum, bore on its crest, like a chaplet, the wild 
flowers it gathered by the margins in its bounding 
career, and sj^rang riotously onward, flaunting like a 
flag above it, the perfume and fragrance it had cap- 
tured fi'om the banks and shrubbei'ies and gardens it 
overran. 

His residence in London, though of an unsocial 
character in the main, was beneficial to one so consti- 
tuted as Grattan. Flung from the aflfectation of his 
college days into all the crowding sensations and sym- 
pathies which melancholy and loneliness, heightened 
by the poetical affinities of his thought, produced, he 
sought, at every new phase of such a living, some 
medium for its greater indulgence, or some antidote 
against its poignant effects. Thus^ last night we found 



WOI.FE TONE AND lllONRY GRATTAN. 31 

liiin haDging like an echo to the words of Cliatham 
in the House of Lords : to-night he is wandering like a 
disturbed spirit though the thickets of Windsor Forest : 
now, he is declaiming to a marrowless skeleton dang- 
ling from a gibbet ; here, listening to some fascinating 
cantatrice at the Italian opera — the music rushing 
through his susceptible soul as the wind played upon 
the latticed ribs of the gibbeted skeleton. Again he 
is wrapped in the shadowy mantle of meditation ; and 
now riant in the society of the fickle substantialities 
of the fashionable world. "The slave of a thousand 
passions," he writes himself, 'Miow intoxicated with 
company, now saddening in solitude ; sometime dis- 
turbed with hope, sometimes depressed with despair, 
and equally ravaged with each ; disgusted often, and 
often precipitately enamored." 

Thus day-dreaming and night-walking, in the box 
at the play-house, or the gallery of the Parliament 
House, lounging about the Grecian CoiFee-house, or 
poring over the chief writers of the day, and carry- 
ing with him, through every experience, an impressi- 
ble nature, easily roused sympathies, and a fancy 
which adapted to itself, and steeped in its own hues 
and colors, everytliing he saw, heard, or touched, 
Grattan possessed himself of a strength, capable, 
under the Prospero-wand of his energy, to arouse the 
storms that slumber beneath the calm, sluggish exte- 
rior of an oppressed people — to use tlie invoked 
whirlwind of resonant wrong — to marshal its gusty 
currents against the battlements of the oppressor — 
to ride on as well as rouse tlie elements — to still them 



32 



as well as surcharge tliein with electricity ; and to 
suffuse the veins of a distracted and disunited people 
with the hot tide of purpose, passion, patriotic ardor 
and armed and belted pride. The example offered 
by Harry Flood's career, and the intimacy formed 
with that ready and powerful cliampion of Irish 
Eights, had an influence on the career and mind of 
Grattan, productive of some of the finest oratory of 
ancient or modern times, and of one of the grandest, 
perhaps the very proudest, of all scenes in the too 
sorrowfully picturesque history of Ireland. 

Introduced to Lord Charlemont as a man of elo- 
quence and ability, that noblemian nominated the 
whilom vague dreamer of Windsor Forest for par- 
liament, and on the lltli December, 1775, lie took 
his seat in the Irish House of Commons, as member 
for the borough of Charlemont. The time was auspi- 
cious. Flood, who, reaping the growth of the seeds 
dropped by Molyneux, Swift, and Lucas, and com- 
bining them, had formed the broadest platform of 
Irish interest known up to that time ; who had 
formed a party and rendered the arena of the Irish 
Parliament one to attract the ambition of talent to its 
strife — was comparatively silent, and by a strange 
logic, based, no doubt, on the fact of his having 
forced the government to termsj advocated that a 
patriot could be of more use to his country when 
holding office under its oppressor, than otherwise. 
Conciliation Hall revivified those principles, and in 
1846, I remember Mr. O'Connell's congratulating the 
conntrj on the fact that Lord Lieutenant Besborough 



WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 33 

was of opinion, that a man's being a Repealer would 
not exclude him from office under the Whig: o-overn- 
m.ent. Whatever pliilosophy may be in this, we see 
that its application has not been salutary. I have 
seen it fatten some individuals to be sure, but I have 
also seen it starve, and worse than starve, degrade 
the country. 

To resume : — Henry Flood, " the candidate for 
contradictory honors," was silent in the Parliament. 
There w^ere others there, Hnssey Burgh, loved and 
respected everywhere, uncorriipted, disinterested, 
eloquent, and who, as Sir Jonah Barrington remarks, 
" was equally attentive to j^ublic concerns and care- 
less of his own ;" Yelverton of commanding argu- 
ments, and whose humor even exhibited solidity; 
Denis Daly, " a man of great ability, large fortune, 
exquisite eloquence, and high character ;" the Pon- 
sonbys, Conollys, and a crowd of talent, but without 
a great audacious, combining, resistless power. 

France and Spain were growling over the Bourbon 
bone ; the administration of Lord North, who, be it 
remembered spoke of repealing certain Port Duties, 
not until " America was prostrate at the feet of Eng- 
land," wdiose arbitrary measures against the colonies 
and wretched obsequiousness to the court, had dis- 
graced one portion of England, and distracted the 
other. 

America, like a giant roused from slumber, spoke 
wdth a voice that shook the British Empire, until 
Ireland almost fell from it. The tramp of armed men 
in one province of the empire though three thousand 



34 'nine:ty-eight and 'fokty-eight. 

miles distant, set the nerves of anotlier province of 
the same empire quivering with anxiety. There 
were men and brothers too, from the four quarters of 
that province who had carried witli them to the 
indignant colonies, the hate of Ulster, the enthusiasm 
of Minister, the intcgrit}^ of Leinster, and the latent 
fire of Connaught. Every chord struck in America 
vibrated in Ireland, and the military spirit wliich 
took shape in 1760, when the French squadron under 
Thurot unfurled their fiag in the bay of Carrick- 
fergus, was spreading through all classes. 

Consecutive Irish administrations had consecutively 
impoverished the land, ruined its trade, traded on its 
politics, hunted the Catholics, humbugged the Pro- 
testants, chained the peasantry, and manacled with a 
mock dignity the peers ; when Henry Grattan came 
forth, like an Apocalyptic soul with burning revela- 
tions on his lips, and a revolution poising on his 
arm. 

Though much of that national desire was extant 
when he come upon the scene, there was no one to 
collect the scattei-ed fire, and ofi'er it on the altar of 
patriotism and truth, as a holocaust to the god of 
Liberty. It was his mission to be great and to confer 
greatness. If he did not create the military ardor, 
the combination of which efiTected the revolution of 
'82, he cherished the seeds of soldierdom, he nurtured 
the being, inspired the faith, glorified the mission, 
until one hundred thousand swords and bayonets, by 
their presence spoke even with more significant 
ekx^uence than his own If he did not entirely evoke 



WOLFE TONE AND HENEY GKATTAN. 60 

the Yolunteers, lie immortalized them ; and were 
it not that the god of Liberty he worshipped was 
the deity of what is known as English Constitulional 
Liberty, those eloquent swords and cannon of the 
Yolunteers, might liave effected for the country that 
immortality of freedom which his eloquence conferred 
on them. He circumscribed himself within " The 
King, Lords and Commons of Ireland." He could 
not see beyond tlie British constitution — not beyond 
the "palladium of English liberty" which Jefferson, 
and Washington, and Henry, and Hancock, and 
Marion, and Montgomery, and Franklin, and Paul 
Jones, and others of the like stamp, wisely got out- 
side of. 

He spoke passionately of a distinctive Irish nation- 
hood : but also argued connexion with England. 
"Ireland is a colony without the benefit of a char- 
ter," says he, in his Declaration of Irish Rights, 
" and you ai-e a provincial synod, without the privi- 
leges of a parliament." Again he says, wrought to 
tlie highest pitch of enthusiasm, " Liberty with 
England, if possible — if not, without her. Perish 
the British Empire — live Iieland." Here it would 
seem that he had a doubt of the possibility of 
"liberty with England;'' but Lord Cloncurry quotes 
sundry passages of a written address to the citizens 
of Dublin from Grattan, in wliich he seriously says, 
" May the kingly Power, that forms one estate in our 
Constitution, continue for ever." In the Declaration 
of Rights he asked for a " Constitution " for the 
people, to the supposed attainment of which, np 



36 



doubt, he alludes in his address. He further says, iD 
the latter ; " May the connexion with Great Britain 
continue ; but let the result of that connexion be, 
the perfect freedom, in the fairest and fullest sense, 
of all descriptions of men, without distinction of 
religion."* 

He labored long, gloriously, wondrously against 
the legislative Union of the two countries, and just 
as long held those doctrines of constitutional con- 
nexion I have shown. He made the cause of 
Ireland more deeply felt than they had ever been by 
his extraordinary powers of eloquence ; and, at the 
same time, indicated no means for their alleviation, 
but left it as far as it ever was, or could be — as far as 
the English connexion. How he reasoned these 
incompatibilities into one voluble sentence I never 
could ima2;ine — no more than I understood what 
" Ireland for the Irish — God save the Queen," of 
Mr. O'Connell meant, saving that it was the pith of 
Grattan's motion, and meant nothing. I cannot 
reconcile the combination of ideas representing such 
widely different and deadly antagonistic interests. 
However, it is not for me to dwell on the fact, but to 
represent to you the political theory which Grattan 
has given us. 

After the legislative Union we have little interest, 
save personally with Grattan. He entered the 
British House of Commons in 1805, and continued 



• Vide Personal Recollections of the Life and Times of Valentine Lord Clon« 
carry, p= 44. 



WOtiFE TONE AND HENKY GRATTAN. 8? 

to be, as he ever was, the advocate of religious tole- 
ration. Cioncurry, in his " Personal Recollections," 
says, that Grattan, in his interconrse with him, 
painfully evinced the change in his position. He 
was "transplanted into the English Legislature," 
says his friend, " and his reputation, as an orator and 
statesman outlived the change, but in a condition of 
languid vitality, incapable of effecting more than the 
preservation from decay of the relics of his name 
and genius." This allusion to the " languid vital- 
ity " seems to be but too well founded. Curran 
said — "Grattan brought his club into the English 
House of Commons, but took care, beforehand, to 
pare off its knobs." 

That same year of 1Y63, in which Grattan entered 
college, and in the same city of Dublin, Theobald 
Wolfe Tone entered this life. His father, a coach- 
maker, and grandfather, a farmer; he was essentially 
of the people. At the age of twelve the talents of 
the child interested his schoolmaster so much that he 
prevailed on his father to send him to a Latin school, 
telling him it was a thousand pities to throw the boy 
away on business — that he would rise, with propei 
education, to a fellowship in Trinity College, which 
was quite sufficient to dazzle the solicitude of any 
parent, as the position indicated was one, not only 
entailing literary glory, but worldly independence. 
The parson of the parish, notwithstanding Theo- 
bald's stupidity on the subject of catechism, urged 
the claims of the youth's talents to a classical 
education, and he was accordingly placed under a 



^S ^NINETY-EIGHT AND 'FORTY-EIGHT. 

clergyman capable of the charge. The boy attacked 
the Latin with ardor, and in two years found the 
Greek much more to his taste. At sixteen he 
entered old Trinity as a pensioner, and remaining 
within its jurisdiction for five years, although very 
idle, as he says himself, passionately devoted to a 
military life, and, no doubt, often led away by the 
movements, music, and display of the Volunteers, 
managed, by the tenacious and grasping character of 
his intellect, to overcome the more volatile obstacles 
of hie nature, and to acquit himself with distin- 
guished credit. He carried off a scholarship, three 
premiums, three medals from the celebrated Histori- 
cal Society, took the degree of Bachelor of Arts; 
and, to a certainty, would have fulfilled his school- 
master's prophecy, by tilling a Fellowship, if that 
honor unfortunately did not carry with its more 
bright prospects the very dismal one of celibacy. 
This point of good fellowship with the softer portion 
of humanity was a primal one with the collegian, 
whose bachelorship he did not intend should be other 
than a degree from his Alma Mater. In a word, he 
had fallen in love with one not sixteen years of age, 
and " beautiful as an angel !" Matilda Witheringtcn, 
the grand-daughter of a rich old clergyman, who 
resided in the vicinit}" of the University, and in pas- 
sing whose window, his eyes first rested on that noble 
creature whose soitows, trials, and heroism have lit 
up many a lovely girl's hopes, inspired many an 
ardent sigh from the gentle but resolute patriotism 
that would emulate her virtues ; and tinged many a 



WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 39 

cheek that could not sympathize with her fortune, 
but worshipped her fortitude. 

Tone was a man of action, and soon opened the 
way, not only to her grandfather's house, but tc 
Matilda's heart, and found a complete recognition of 
his love in a mutual and trustful affection. " I pro- 
posed to her to marry me without asking consent of 
any one," says he, " knowing well it would be vain 
to expect it; she accepted the proposal as frankly as 
I made it, and one beautiful morning, in the month 
of July, we ran off and were married." He carried 
his wife out of town, achieved the temporary forgive- 
ness of her relations, and thus flinging off' his odd 
fellowship with a snug income, for a man-ied life with- 
out a shilling, soon found himself in the wilderness of 
London. He entered the Temple, but the profession 
of law being one which only excited his antipathies, 
he did little else towards that end than write his name 
on the books of the Temple, and pay for, by some 
means or other, twenty-four dinners in the Common 
Hall. While in London, he wrote for the " European 
Magazine," and, in company with two friends, a bur- 
lesque novel called "Belmont Castle," which was 
printed afterwards with some success in Dublin. 

He was not rid of the law however, for his wife's 
grandfather paying her portion of five hundred 
pounds, Tone returned to Dublin, laid out one-fifth 
of the sum in law books, and ultimately was called 
to the bar in Trinity Term, 1789. On his first circuit 
he surprised himself by nearly paying his expenses ; 
but nothing could overcome his distaste for the pro 



io 



fession. His mind grasped largely, and sought to act 
with the same executive power as it received. His 
nature, generous, chivah-ous, ardent, and strongly 
given to military pursuits, casting off the law soon 
found in the excited politics of the time something to 
aiTest the flight of his intellect, and receive from it a 
recognition destined to expand in a very ominous 
degree. A pamphlet defending the Whig Club, 
against which the government press was devotedly 
rapacious, was his first sign of political life. The 
club, however, falling for behind his political opinions, 
could not enlist his complete sympathies, but only 
commanded his praise, inasmuch as it was the best 
constituted body of the time. His pamphlet, how- 
ever, had a great success, and was rej^rinted by the 
Northern Whig Club, who elected its author a 
member. 

Members of Parliament and leading 'politicians 
turned their eyes to the pamphleteer. They would 
like to engage him to their particular service, but 
carefully observant. Tone found that he should retro- 
grade rather than progress, and wisely determined 
not to connect himself with any man or set of men. 
He speedily came to the opinion that the English 
influence was the radical vice of the Irish Govern- 
ment, " and consequently that Ireland would never 
be either free, jDrosperous, or haj^i^y, until she was 
independent ; and that independence was unattaina- 
ble whilst the connexion with England existed." 

There, he very plainly arrives at the root of the 
evil, and men have not to bewilder themselves iu 



WOLFE TONE ANti HENRY GKATTAN. 41 

striving to reconcile impossibilities. In taking this 
wide view, he lost sight of the Whig Club completely, 
and without sorrow. 

On the appearance of a rupture with Spain, he 
issued a masterly address asserting the right of his 
country to independence, and proving that she was 
not bound by the declaration of war, but could, and 
should as a nation stipulate for a neutrality. In this 
pamphlet he unswervingly advanced his ideas of 
separation. Bold and convincing was he in this pro- 
duction, and with clearness and energy does he treat 
the subject. After reviewing the blood, treasure, 
trade that would be sacrificed, he showed that the 
arguments for going to war were reduceable to three 
— to wit : " The good of the em'pire^ the honor of the 
British flag^ and the protection which England 
affords us,-^ and then proceeds — 

" I confess I am, at the outset, mucli staggered by a phrase so 
very specious, and of such general acceptation as this of ' the 
good of the empire /' Yet, after all, what does it mean,? or what 
is the empire? * * * * * * ** 

" It is convenient, doubtless, for England, and for her instru- 
ments in this country, to cry up the ''good of the empire^' 
because it lays the power of Ireland at her disposal ; but if the 
empire consists of two parts, one of which is to reap the whole 
profit of a contest, and the other to share only the difficulties 
and the danger, I know not why we should be so misled by 
sounds as to sacrifice solid advantages to the whistling of the 
name of ' e?}ipire.'' The good of the whole empire consists of 
the good of all the parts; but in our case, the good of one part 
IS renounced to establish the good of the other. Let us, for 
God's sake, caU things 1)y their proper names; let us analyze 



42 * -"—■■" •"- ' 



FOKTT-EtOHT. 



this unmeaning and fallacious mixed mode '■ emjyire'' into its 
components England and Ireland, and then see how the matter 
stands. * * * * Ireland has 7io quarrel^ but, on the con- 
trary, a very beneficial intercourse with Spain, which she is 
called upon to renounce to her infinite present detriment ; she is 
called on, likewise, to squander her wealth and shed her blood 
in this English East Indian quarrel, and then she is told, to con- 
bole her, that she has been advancing ' the good of the empire P 
Let us substitute ''England'' for the '■empire^'' and see if it be not 
nearer the fact and truth." 

Again, speaking of the honor of the British flag, he 
says : 

" Wheee is the National Flag of Ireland ? I know there 
are those who, covering their apathy or their corruption with 
the specious garb of wise and prudent caution, may raise their 
hands in astonishment at this, as an idle exclamation ; but I say, 
that such a badge of inferiority between the two kingdoms, is a 
serious grievance. * * * Is national rank nothing ? If the 
flag of England be, as it is, dearer to every brave Englishman 
than his life, is the wish for a similar badge of honor to Ireland 
to be scouted as a chimera ? Can the same sentiment be great 
and glorious on one side of the channel, and wild and absurd on 
the other ? It is a mortifying truth, but not the less true for its 
severity, that the honor of the British is the degradation of the 
Irish flag!" 

And he continues in this strain, growing fiercer and 
even more convincing to the end. These passages 
are so applicable to the present usage of Irish valor, 
and blood, and money, in the present war, that I 
make no excuse for quoting them. They exhibit the 
confirmed opinions of their author, moreover, and 



WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 43 

oiFer a striking contrast, in their direct and powerful 
simplicity of style, truth, and logical conviction, to 
the more purple-phrased and purposeless theories of 
Gi-attan. 

To make Ireland a slave, the British minister should 
have kept her a beggar ; said Grattan i"^ " There is 
no middle policy," says he, yet he swung all his life 
between an enthusiastic patriotism on the one hand, 
and a loud loyalty on the other. We cannot well 
impeach his patriotism. He went as far, pi-obably, as 
the dazzling haze of language he enctrcled liimself 
wdth, would allow him in security to go. He was 
brilliant enough to have been harder metal. He was 
not a statesman, for he talked much more than he 
acted. Mr. D. Owen Madden, reviewing his letters 
and speeches, truly says : " He was utterly mistaken 
in the nature of political power. He confounded 
fame with authority — celebrity with influence." This 
is the mistake of all men who make what may be 
called an impromptu reputation. The populace ever 
ready to cheer, are quick to detect the inconsistencies 
betw^een the sayings and the doings of a man, who, 
either is, or aspires to be, a leader. Thoughts must 
be crowned with acts ; for as Shakspere hath it, 

" The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 
Unless the deed go with it." 

Grattan could pi-obe the wound but never heal it; 
"greatly emancipate, or fundamentally destroy," said 
he ; and while I think the eifect of his life and theory 

* Declaration of Irish Rights. April 19, 1780. 



i4: ^NINETY-EIGHT AND WrTY-EIGHT. 

not calculated to do either tliorougldy, I must admit, 
that while believing he was attempting the former, 
he was accomplishing the latter ; it may be by slow, 
and oratorically unapparent, but nevertheless sure 
processes. He continues : " We may talk plausibly 
to England, but so long as she exercises a power to 
bind this country, so long are the nations in a state 
of war ; the claims of the one, go against the liberty 
of the other, and the sentiments of the hitter, go to 
oppose those claims, to the last drop of her blood." 
Tone could not have been clearer on the point ; but 
why delude ourselves by merely reading the passage? 
Grattan's life is a commentary upon it. He perpetu- 
ated by his tongue and example, the " power to 
bind " his country, and the " claims " of the English 
crown against its liberty, by his infatuation after con- 
nexion. He lived to sit in the senate of that con- 
nexion. Tone died for those very ideas that Grattau 
talked, thus : " A country enlightened as Ireland, 
chartered as Ireland, armed as Ireland, injui-ed as 
Ireland, will be satisfied with nothing less than 
liberty." 

How widely apart were their ideas of liberty. 
They were men of different vision^ and saw Freedom 
under various guises. This reminds me of what 
Michelet says : " Take the most liberal, a German or 
an Englishman, at random ; speak to him of liberty, 
he will answer, ' liberty !' And then just try to see 
what they will understand by it. You will then per- 
ceive that this word has as many meanings as there 
are nations. That the German or English democrats 



WOLFE TONE AND HENKY GRATTAN. 45 

are aristocrats at heart ; that the barrier of nation- 
alities, which you beheve effaced, remains ahiiost 
entire. All those people whom you believe so near, 
are five hundred leagues from you.""^ This in the 
abstract, is true, varying with the necessities of the 
people ; but one is not bound to believe a man 
free, because he is satisfied with his life ; nor regard 
as liberty what would satisfy an individual. It is the 
philosophy that is embodied, the principle to be 
maintained, the truth to be asserted, and not the 
individual that embodies, maintains, or asserts. 

"Mr. Byrne," said a notorious slave of the Com- 
mons, Sir Henry Cavendish, to Tone's publisher, the 
day after the publication of the paniphlet quoted 
above, " Mr. Byrne, if the author of that work is 
serious, he ought to be hanged." So unaccustomed 
was lie to such language, Cavendish, no doubt, 
thought the writer mad. Tone tells us that an Eng- 
lish Bishop with five or six thousand a year, labo- 
T'iously earned in the church, also said to his publisher: 
" Sir, if the principles contained in that abominable 
work were to spread, do you know that you would 
have to pay for your coals at the rate of £5 a ton?" 
The pamphlet, however, created little impression, the 
timid publisher having suppressed it. 

It was now some years after the great display 
of the Yolunteers, wdien the nation had been 
declared " independent;" but the Irish Parliament was 
only a shadow of the English one. Reform was 

• Tbe People. By J. Michelet. 



46 



demanded, conventions of the Yolunteers met, plans 
were proposed, but nothing effected. There were 
able minds who espoused the national cause in the 
Parliament, but the patriotism of even the most 
gifted was displayed in a modified form. It all 
arose from the sophistication of the people into the 
belief that they were independent when they were 
not. Lord Edward Fitzgerald denounced Grattan 
for his unrepublicaiiism, and for his avowing that the 
Irish would back up the English in the war. This 
came of acknowledging the king over the Lords and 
Commons. But men in Parliament like Fitzgerald, 
and out of it like Wolfe Tone, were noble exceptions 
to the rule of men engaged at that period in the poli- 
tics of their country. The action of the few great 
men of the opposition, was to be sure, not so much 
their own fault as the position into which they were 
thrown : and strange as it may seem they were looked 
upon in the senate as seditionists and rebels. Par- 
liament in possession of the Protestants, was a mere 
caucus of the aristocracy. " To the English," says 
an able writer, " it was a convenient servant and a 
helpless antagonist." 

The Protestant party had been for above a century 
in easy enjoyment of the church, the law, the revenue, 
the army, the navy, the magistracy, the corj)orations, 
and all institutions receiving or extending patronage. 
Not one-tenth of the entire population, and descended 
from foreign plunderers and usurpers, in English con- 
nection they alone beheld security ; and England, 
profiting by their weaknesses, augmented their fears, 



VVOLFE TO^E AND HENRY GRATTAN. 47 

gave them her protection, and took in exchange the 
commerce, the liberties of Ireland. The events of 
the American Revolution emboldened the Catholics 
and Presbyterians, and thns forced the Protestants 
into some slightly -beneficial measures of redress, but 
they remained attached to their j)rotectress ; a pro- 
perty party, an aristocracy. 

The Dissenters — double in numbers to the Protes- 
tants — were chiefly manufacturers and traders, and 
did not believe their existence depended on the 
immutability of their slavishness to England. They 
formed the flower of the army of '82. They were 
the first to demand parliamentary reform. The first 
to come forward in vindication of the principles of 
the French Revolution. 

The Catholics, numerically were the most formida- 
ble, embracing, as they did, the peasantry of three 
provinces, and a considerable j)ortion of the business 
class. The exactions of the Penal Laws had left them 
but a small proportion of the landed interest. "There 
was no injustice, no disgrace, no disqualification, 
moral, political or religious, civil or military that was 
not heaped upon them." 

Thus stood the island. 

Tone threw himself into the Catholic cause. He 
wisely saw that to eftect anything for the country they 
should think and speak boldly ; and so determined to 
amalgamate them with the Presbyterians. He saw 
that in the identification of their interests and afifec- 
tions — the interests and afifections of the people as 
they were — lay the only foundation — the sole hope 



48 



of the liberty of either or the glorious desire which 
inspired his heart and soul. "To unite the whole 
people of Ireland ; to abolish the memory of past dis- 
sensions ; and to substitute the common name of 
Irishman in place of the denominations of Protes- 
tant, Catholic, and Dissenter," — these were the means 
he employed, or ambitioned to employ, in the asser- 
tion of the final independence of his land. 

With these views he wrote his " Argument in 
Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland," addressed to the 
Dissenters. He was the apostle of union, consoli- 
dation, strength, liberty ; and enjoyed the gratifica- 
tion of finding that his arguments and doctrines fell 
wholesomely on the ear of the JSTorth, for which they 
were intended. Tlirough the instrumentality of this 
pamphlet he became acquainted with Keogh, McCor- 
mick, Sweetman, Byrne, and other leaders of the 
General Catholic Committee. His reputation spread- 
ing rapidly, the Yolunteers of Belfast elected him an 
honorary member ; a favor never bestowed but in 
one other instance, on Harry Flood. 

Following up these flattering tokens of approval, he 
went to Belfast, in company mth his friend Thomas 
Kussell, and on the 12th October, 1791, he founded 
the Society of United Irishmen. On the 18th the 
first regular meeting was held. The club consisted 
of thirty-six original members, and Tone wrote all the 
resolutions as well as the declaration of the society ; 
which expressed emphatically that idea of fraternity 
which the name indicated. Thus were planted the 
geeds of that ors^anization which was destined to con- 



* WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 4:9 

7ulsc the empire, and exhibit the Irish in a noble and 
unfortunate^ though gloriously-fought assertion of 
their rigl ts. In JN^ovember Tone returning to Dublin, 
set abo'jt making the accpaintance of some prominent 
men, and on the 9tli of the same month a Dublin 
branch of the United Irishmen, was held ; Hon. 
Simon Butler being the chairman and I^apper Tandy 
the secretary. So progresses the organizer and his 
organization. 

" It is w^orth}^ of attention," says Dr. Madden, 
" tliat botli Tone and Tandy at this period were 
republicans, and yet the society they founded was 
formed expressly to obtain a reform in Parliament, 
and the abolition of the Penal Code."^ Tone 
knew well that he could not effect anything by such 
a premature movement as phmging them, from their 
comparative darkness, into the full light which illu- 
mined his principles. They should be led boldly, 
though with a self-preservative caution, which, with- 
out breeding timidity in the bold, w^ould make bold 
the timid. Tone himself says : " At this time the 
establishment of a Pe2:)ublic was not the immediate 
object of my speculations, my object was to secure 
the independence of my country under o/ny form of 
government — to which object I was led by a hatred 
of England, so deeply rooted in my nature that it was 
rather an instinct than a principle." 

The new society grew rapidly into stateliness and 
strength by the adhesion of the Catholics and many 

* Lives and Times of United Irishmen. 



50 'ninety EIGHT AND FOETY-EIGHT. 

Protestants. Tlie Catholic Committee, which was by 
voice of the country ordained its representative, look- 
ing anxiously for some man of abib'ty, truth, and 
courage to be their agent, rested its ejes before the 
intrepid soul and manly attributes of Tone. A pro- 
posal was made to him and was accepted. Thus th« 
reins were falling into his bands ; and in the eyes of 
history and his contemporaries, he filled the arduous 
trust with honor and sagacity, and attached to his 
position a significant power ; for the fact of the 
founder of the United Irishmen being appointed 
agent of the Catholic Committee gave, in the words 
of Moore, " warning, sufficiently intelligible, that 
the time was at hand when the same spirit would be 
found to actuate both of these bodies."* 

Meanwhile the continued and heightening inso 
lence of the administration had a o;ood efl:ect in rous- 
ing the spirit of the people into antagonism ; and did 
more to extend the oro-anization of United Irishmen 
than could have been accomplished by the most ener- 
getic of its leaders. Growing in thought, with its 
strength the society began to look outside of Catholic 
Rights and Parliamentary Reform. The leaders 
panted for vengeance, and aimed at separation. 
Their clubs took a more desperate complexion, and 
now, for the first time, oaths of secrecy were intro- 
duced ; whilst, under the auspices of government on 
the other hand, were fostered and encouraged the 
Orange lodges. The objects of the latter were the 

* Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 



WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 51 

support of the Anglican Chiircli and interest, to 
the subjection of all others ; whilst the former 
as determinedly designed the independence of Ire- 
land. 

That the issues between them could alone be settled 
by force was clearly evident; and as England was 
the open i-esonrce of the one, the nature of existing 
circumstances led Tone to form an alliance with 
France for the support of the other. 

At length, in 1794, the arrest and trial of Rev. 
Wm. Jackson (a Protestant clergyman), drew the 
suspicions of the government upon Tone. Jackson, 
on the representations of an old Irishman named 
Madge t, engaged in the department of foreign affairs 
in Paris, was sent by the French government to 
sound the people of Ireland respecting their inclina- 
tion for French aid. He was accompanied from Eng- 
by one Cockayne, an English attorney, to whom he 
indiscreetly opened his mind, being seduced by the 
lawyer's apparent truth. With Wolfe Tone, as the 
chief mind of the revolutionary parties, Jackson had 
many conferences ; but the former, disgusted with 
the rash confidence placed in Cockayne, never spoke 
in the presence of that person. " This business," said 
he to Jackson, " is one thing for us Irishmen ; but 
an Englishman who engages in it must be a ti'aitor 
one way or the other." 

As Tone foresaw, the Englishman was in connection 
with the government ; Jackson was arresled on his 
information, and by his death proved his truth to 
that cause which he so foolishly jeopardized. Kis 



52 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

patriotism was and is undoubted ; but liis temper and 
simplicity were not so characterized as to conduct a 
secret mission with success. Tone's connection with 
liim made it imperative that for his future services 
to the cause he should leave the country, and he was 
earnestly urged to it by Addis Emmet, Russell, 
Keogh, McCormick, and others. 

As the consequence of this, on the 1st August, 
1705, there arrived at Wilmington, on the Delaware, 
a young man, with a beautiful wife, and a precious 
freight of three children, and a devoted sister. Ban- 
ished from the land of their birth, they sought upon 
the great, throbbing bosom of this continent at least 
the shelter of a temporary home. The head of this 
little band is a young man of about thirty, gifted with 
all that makes life noble — truth, intellect, enthusiasm, 
sincerity, with an energy irrepressible, and a temper 
capable of embracing any emergency. He is a man 
among men — a man for a people — fit for a country to 
adore — fit to ennoble a country. His exile from 
fatherland did not sever his heart or his intellect from 
it. Soon this young man has an audience of the 
French minister, citizen Adet, who desires a memo- 
rial from him on the state of Ireland. In two or 
three days he has it. Tone urged the necessity 
of his proceeding immediately to France. Adet 
thought otherwise, but sent the memorial, backed 
with his strongest recommendations. Letters from 
Keogh and Eussell, however, put all personal inac- 
tion out of the question, and on the 1st January, 
1796, the exile set sail from Sandy Hook for France, 



WotlTE TOISTE Al^i) HENRY GRATTijsr. 53 

having despatched his brother Arthnr to inform the 
leaders in Ireland of his intentions. With himself 
he carried to France a letter from Adet, in cyplier, 
to the Comite de Salut Pnbliqne, and the entire love 
and concurrence of his noble wife. 

On the 1st February he landed at Havre and imme- 
diately proceeded to Paris. 

It is impossible that in the space allotted I could 
follow the indomitable spirit and energy, the states- 
manlike views, the unqnailing determination, and un- 
equalled adroitness of his labors in France and Ham- 
burgh, nor do more than allude to the three great 
expeditions he projected. 

Addressing himself to Carnot, the Frenchman pro- 
posed to send a force of 2,000 men, which, through 
Tone's persuasions was augmented- to 8,000 and 50,000 
stand of arms ; but Hoche, being induced to head 
the expedition, and determining on deeds worthy of 
his fame as a general, the force was doubled. 

Tone now wrote an address to the People of Ire- 
land, characterized by all that clearness of style, 
vigor of diction, and relentless scorn of all opposition 
to the project of Irish independence, which make his 
writings at once as attractive irom their simplicity as 
their force. He set out into an examination of the 
situation and interests of the country, and felt strong 
in the belief that God had given it the means if it had 
the courage to be free. He hailed the French Revo- 
lution as the avatar of European freedom, and ex- 
pressed his conviction that '* the doctrine of republi- 
canism will finally subvert that of monarchy, and 



54 *NINETT-EIGHT AND 'FORTY-EIGH'r. 

establish a system of rational liberty, on the ruins of 
the thrones of the despots of Europe." The blessed 
desire was father to the thought. He truly believed 
that there was no need for subtle arcrument or silken 
phrases, no ingenuity necessary to state tlie grievances 
of Ireland, and discarding any " third way," sub- 
mitted to the people for their choice the alternatives 
of Union or Bejyaration. 

" To a raagnanimous people," said he, " it is unnecessary to 
prove that it ia 'ba^e^ to an enhghtened peojjle it is unnecessary 
to prove tliat it is ruinous^ to exist in dependence on the will of 
a foreign power, and that power an ambitious rival. To you 
this is not matter of mere speculation. You feel it in your 
Government, in your laws, in your manners, in ^our principles, 
in your education ; with all the great moral and physical-ad van- 
tages of which you are possessed, yt)u are unnoticed and un- 
known as a nation in Europe ; your bodies and your minds are 
bent down by the incumbent pressure of your tyrant ; she, to 
maintain whose avarice and ambition you are daily forced to 
spill your best blood, in whose cause you fight without glor}' and 
without profit, where victory but, rivets your chains the faster, 
and where defeat adds to slaver}', mortification and disgrace."* 

Sixty years have passed and Tone's address might 
be issued, as daguerreotyping" the existing state and 
indicating the necessities of Ireland. The difficulty 
is to condense any portion of it, lest one might omit 
a truth. Hereditary monarchs, liereditary legisla- 
tors, the aristoci-atic faction wdiicli, " though not 
the tenth part of your population, has arrogated to 
itself iive-sixths of the property," " the inestimable 

♦ Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, edited by his son. Appendix, tjI. :j. p. 977. 



WOLFE TON^E AXD HENllY GRATTAN. bo 



blessings of the British constitution." The army and 
navy and the whole Irish establishment came beneath 
and felt his iron grasp, his sarcasm, his convincing- 
scorn, his clear exposition, his republican ordeal. He 
pointed exultinglj to A^merica, and besought his 
countrj-men '' to see whether every motive which 
actuated her in the contest," did not apply to them 
Vv'ith tenfold force. 

"The sword is drawn, the Rubicon is passed, and we 
have no retreat. We must conquer England or they 
will conquer us." How Tone's heart must have 
throbbed to see this armament, which had leaped 
from his brain, as did Pallas Athense fi'om that of 
Jupiter, sail out from Brest on that 15th day of 
December 1796. What bounding joy, freaked with 
flashes of retributive vengeance on the Ted flag, must 
have illumined the soul and made glad the heart of 
the young sire of the expedition, as he speculated on 
the mission and chivalry of his belted offspring. 

The grand armament consisted of seventeen sail of 
the line, thirteen frigates and an equal number of 
transports, making in all, forty-three sail with an 
army of 15,000 men. 

The elements warred with the god of battles, and 
this splendid force, which in the opinion of Napoleon, 
would have conquered the island, had it landed, was 
destined to be the sport of the air ; until, reduced to 
sixteen vessels and but 6,500 fighting men, the 
remains of Heche's pride found themselves off Bantry 
Bay under the command (^f Grouchy, who would not 
take the responsibility of landing. They reached 



66 'NLNEXr-EIGHT AND 'fORTY-EIGHT. ^ 

France tlie best way they could ; but four ships of 
the line, two frigates and a lugger returning together 
to that port from which the expedition started in high 
hopes and with a glorious prospect. 

But the winds and tides though they might thwart 
his designs and annihilate his plans, could not break 
the spirit or bow the determination of Wolfe Tone. 
His soul was as free as the storm, his energy as un- 
ceasing as the waves. Although he was discomfited 
he was not disheartened. Again he is at work, and 
in 1797 another expedition has a being in the Texel 
under the auspices of the Batavian Republic, con- 
sisting of fifteen sail of the line, eleven frigates, and a 
number of sloops, all carrying 14,000 men. — Alas, 
again the winds of heaven played false to that Free- 
dom of which they are the type — and yet again from 
the storm, like a clear day, rose the heart of Tone, 
still serene in its magnanimity, and invigorating in 
its elasticity. 

The third expedition, small in force, and weak in 
its general — Humbert — ^proved fatal to the heart 
whose devoted patriotism propelled them all like 
arrows from a bow. Humbert landed with 1,200 
men at Killalla, on the 22d August, 1798, wasted 
valuable time, and, for a period, struck terror into 
the island ; but, being surrounded on the 8th Sep- 
tember by the British army, he surrendered at 
Ballinamuck. 

Three Irishmen accompanied Humbert : Tone's 
brother, Matthew, Bartholomew Teeling, and Sulli- 
van, a nephew of Madgett. The latter escaped in 



-WoLFE TONE AND HENRY GRATTAN. 0< 

the disguise of a Frenchman. Matthew Tone and 
Teeling were bronght to Dublin, t!*ied, and exe- 
cuted. 

The gallant master-spirit of all, the man who has 
in modern times, more than any other, shed a lustre 
on Irish patriotism and Irish determination, Theobald 
Wolfe Tone, was captured on board the Hoche, where 
he commanded one of the batteries during a despe- 
rate engagement which lasted six hours, that vessel 
being surrounded bj four ships of the line. The 
French oflScers reported Tone as fighting with the 
"utmost desperation." He was recognized, ironed, 
tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death — 
which he anticipated. 

Grattan died in London, and sleeps surrounded by 
the congenial dust of the poets in Westminster 
Abbey. Tone rests in the old churchyard of Bodens- 
town, in the county of Kildare. Of that dust which 
immortalizes the kindred clay there, by resting in its 
lonely embrace, Thomas Davis tells us : 



" In him the heart of a woman combined 

With a heroic life, and a governing mind — 
A martyr for Ireland- —his grave has no stone — 
His name seldom nam'd, and his virtues unknown." 



His name and his virtues should not be unknown ; 
for the one is evermore as typical of liberty as the 
others are w^orthy of imitation. To all seekers of 
truth and manhood — to all lovers of energy displayed 
in a sacred cause — to all worshippers of freedom, of 
whatever race or clime, and especially to all Irish- 

4^ 



S8 



FORTY-EIGH'T. 



men, should the virtues of him who rests in that 
green grave be known, and his name be dear. 

The first great Irish Eepublican, Theobald "vYolfe 
Tone, sleeps there, and makes the grass above him 
eloquent. 

In the lives and actions of Theobald Wolfe Tone 
and Henry Grattan there is mucli for all Irishmen to 
be 23roud of, and very much to ponder on. Giving, 
as they do, maxims and examples from which have 
sprung two great parties in tlieir native land, they 
may fairly be esteemed, as they really are, the repre- 
sentative men of modern Irish politics. Both born 
in Dublin, both educated at that great university, 
from wdiose venerable cloisters have issued so much 
dazzling genius, and so many minds famous on the 
records of literature, science, and politics; they are 
totally opposite in the measures they proposed for the 
amelioratio!! of their country's wrongs and the decla- 
ration of their country's I'ights. In the character of 
their respective talents, in the variety of their 
accomplisliments, in the peculiarity of the services 
rendered to their country, there is a striking parallel 
between Tone and Grattan and two famous leaders 
of the American Revolution — Jefi'erson and Hamil- 
ton. 

Like the American, the Irish leaders were both 
great friends of liberty, as they respectively viewed 
its means and necessities ; and like them, also, dif- 
fered widely as to the best means of serving it. 
Tone, like Jefferson, " attributed all the evils of 
socie'y to the bad government" of the day. Grattan 



WOLT'E TONE AXD HENRY GRATTAN. ^0 

thoiiglit as did Hamilton, tliat the British govern- 
ment was the best in the world. Hamilton doubted 
if anything short of it would suit America ; Grattan 
thought likewise regarding Ireland. Judge Bald- 
win,"^ reviewing the American statesman's opinions, 
thinks the intimation unworthy of Hamilton's intel- 
lect ; one of the objects of my essay is to prove it 
thoronghly so of Grattan's. Like Jefferson, Tone 
would make a government to suit the people ; like 
Hamilton, Grattan would have a people to suit the 
government. Tone's labors have left a perfect and 
unmistakable beacon for his people. So have those 
of Jefferson, and " if he was not entirely accurate, 
he was distinct." Grattan, like Hamilton, swung 
between the necessities of the people and the sup- 
posed glories of the British constitution, the former 
of which grew out of the latter, even as crime comes 
out of darkness. Tone had the same fanatic confi- 
dence in the truth of the j)rinciples and doctrines he 
combined and promulgated as Jefferson. All great 
men feel this fire within them. It is that which 
gives them their strength — that l)nrns their ideas into 
the brains of their listeners — that renders obstacles 
to them of no importance — that infuses them with 
energy, courage, directness of purpose, force of 
character. Fire is a resistless element, and is power- 
ful alike in the frame of the mortal as in the forest. 
It renders them impervious to the contentional waters 
outside, and when guided by a purpose, consolidates 

♦ Party Leaders. By Jo. G. Baldwin. 



60 



all things, and every occurrence, tlie most trivial as 
the most visibly important within the brain. A man 
lirm in his belief adapts everything to his purpose ; 
and his intellect is never without resources, some- 
times startling, but all times characteristically im- 
pressive. 

" Grattan," says Barrington, '' worshipped popula- 
rity, yet there was a tinge of aristocracy in his devo- 
tion which, while it qualified its enthusiasm, still added 
to its purity." Though not lacking enthusiasm, he 
was considerable as an artist, while with Tone, as he 
says himself, his cause was more a natural instinct 
than an acquired principle. 

Grattan was the most poetical of orators. 

Tone the most practical of organizers. 

The one fed with brilliant thoughts, incited to 
action a national army of 100,000 men, commanded 
by the flower of the Irish nobility, and declared his 
country free — inde|)endent of everything save the 
king, and its union with Great Britain. 

The other called forth three armed expeditions 
from the French and Batavian Kepublics to invade 
the English garrison in Ireland, and declare his 
country and her people fi'ee and independent of 
everything, save the obligations due to the state and 
dignity of an Irish Republic. 

In their intellectual character, they were equally 
different and equally striking. Grattan depended 
more on his manner ; Tone on his matter. The one, 
florid in style, exuberant in expression, gorgeous in 
coloring, and of a richness of fancy equal to an 



WOLFE TONE AND HENRY GEATTAN. 61 

oriental fantasy. The other, combinmg great fei'vor 
of manner, force of thought, clearness of perception, 
and coloring vividly and freshly, because natu- 
rally. 

Grattan — of an observation keen and judicious, 
accomplishments manifold ; all steej)ed in aristocratic 
hues, and fringed with the polished mannerisms of the 
best society. 

Tone — of equally observant powers, more clearness, 
less sophistry — more restless for immediate action, 
and dess dependent on style for the success of his 
thought. His acquirements were many, his ability to 
receive, to augment them, great. Naturally, he was 
possessed of an intuitive understanding, and saw 
things clearly, and learned to call them by their 
proper names, Mdulst others only dreamt of distending 
them by elastic and everlasting rhetoric. 

Grattan's own glowing and magical words, it would 
seem deluded himself, as well as the applauding 
listeners in the lobbies and galleries. 

Tone was as devoted to his idea of Irish Freedom 
as the fanatical Hindustanee to his Juggernaut, and 
like him sacrificed himself to it. He followed up 
that idea as he did his beautiful wife, with the love 
and passion which are the offspring of truth and sim- 
plicity. 

Grattan by his nature and capacities was one to be 
a shining star in the constellation of which the king 
and a British constitution were the predominant orbs. 

Tone would be the ever active, ever vigilant, ever 
proud and anxious citizen of a Republican state, of 



62 



whose honor he would boast, and whose destiny he 
would indicate. 

To sum up in a few words the signs left by those 
men on the road of renown, and to deduce from them, 
their achievements and their teaching for the future, 
I would say : — Grattan gave Irish politics an enthu- 
siasm, an intellectual glory, a position they had not 
before. Tone marked out the position they should 
hold in future. Graitan was a politician. Tone a 
hero. Grattan would have everything Irish save the 
government. Tone would have nothing English save 
the enemy. Grattan, was a connexionist : Tone, a 
separatist. Grattan, was an elocutionist: Tone, a 
revolutionist. Grattan, w^as an orator : Tone, an 
organizer. Grattan, was a Monarchist: Tone, a Re- 
publican. 



THR WEXFORD CAMPAIGN 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 



65 



THE WEXFOED CAMPAIGK 

Ttie boldj brief, brilliant and bloody struggle, 
through the historical monuments of whose gloom 
and glory I shall now w^ander witli you, was as 
remarkable and unexpected in '98, as it is fraught 
with a thrilling interest and manifold admonitions for 
us to-day. 

If the issue was not successful, neither w^as it dis- 
honorable ; and we can afford to let that ghastly, 
blood-bespattered past speak to us without shame. 
Though it may accuse our race from its Wexford 
graves and scaffolds of many excesses and eirors, 
they were the excesses of success, the errors of 
revenge. It may accuse us of willfulness and bigotry ; 
they were, if not the natural, the expedient wea- 
pons to meet willfulness and bigotry. They were the 
resources of the day — the dreadful weapons alone 
within grasp when the insurgents considered every 
Protestant a tyrant; when Pi'otestants proclaimed 
every Catliolic a rebel ; when reason was banished, 
mercy denounced, and the reciprocal thirst for blood 
insatiable.^ These it may accuse that struggle with^ 
but it cannot accuse it of cowardice. 

♦ Barringtoii's Rise and Fall, p. 347, 



6Q 



Looming as the spectre does from Mount Leinster 
to Duncannon, it still hears mournfully impassioned 
tales of Oiilart and Ross, of Enniscorthy and Vinegar 
Hill, of Gorey and Tubberneering, The Bari'ow, the 
Slaney, and the Kore liave paid unceasingly their 
tribute to the ocean, but they have not washed away 
the heroic memories so impetuously written on their 
banks. Half a century of summers brought fruit and 
flowers and wealthy vegetation there ; and half a 
century of winters, like the ghostly bridegroom of the 
German tale, disrobed the trustful, loving earth of all 
her flowery garments, and wrapped her in the icy folds 
of death. Summer and winter — the fruits and flowers 
of the one, and the snows and storms of the other, 
are alike transitory. They came and have gone ; but 
that which comes and goes not, the memory of the 
brave and just is richer than the luxuriance of June 
and stronger than the winds of December. The 
spectre of that year still rears its war-worn front, chi- 
valric though haggard, gashed and bleeding above 
those hills and plains, above those old towns and 
towers. 

The cause which produced it may be questioned 
by some ; but the courage which supported it never 
by any. 

If the end of the Wexford struggle was not attained, 
the means then taken still live glorious with exam- 
ples of devotion, courage, and fortitude, from which 
the Irish nationalist of to-day may profitably take 
hope and warning. 

The rising of Wexford was unexpected in '98. It 



THE WEXFORD CAMrAIGN. 67 

was riot included in the progrannne of organization 
formed in Dublin. There was no preconcerted 
arrangement with any other county. On tlie arrest 
of the delegates of United Irishmen, at Oliver Bond's, 
on the 12th March, 1798, it was neither represented 
by a delegate, nor by letter. The celebrated William 
Putnam McCabe made an attempt to organize 
tlie County Wexford, and though he considered it 
among the boldest of his many bold efforts, he had 
but little success, and from the apathy of the people, 
a systematic organization, under the auspices of the 
United Irishmen, was thought fruitless. 

The people of Wexford, descended in part from the 
English adventurers furnished to Dermod McMurrogh 
by Henry the Second, with an admixture of tlie 
Cromwellian phmderers of a later period, and a 
more remote sprinkling of the blood of Dane and 
Gael, were ever considered a brave race, but lived 
witliin themselves, took little notice of outside agita- 
tion, and had for many years attained a character for 
peace and probity, which was held out for the exam- 
ple and emulation of other parts of Ireland. From 
the industry of the inhabitants, their peaceable 
nature, the absence of rioting, and the good reputa- 
tion of the county in all respects. Hay states that 
" landed property was -considered of higher value in 
it than in many other parts of the island. An exe- 
cution for a capital crime rarel}^ took place there ; 
and in the calendar of its criminals, it has as few on 
record as any part of either Great Britain or Ire- 



68 'ninety-eight and fokty-eight. 

land."^" Yet with all its ambition to sliow an exam- 
ple of inclnstiy and peac^ to tlie conn try, Wexford 
wss also ambitions to be the most intolerant. And 
while thronghont the land, the ranks of the Yolanteers 
were snndering those bigoted feelings and antipa- 
thies springing from the fears of Catholic or Protest- 
ant ascendency' — while in those ranks Catholic and 
Protestant soldiers felt each other a necessity for the 
preservation of both ; the Volunteers of Wexford 
willfully abused the privileges and purposes of the 
organization — created a taction of the intended 
nationality, and sowed that seed from which sprang 
the inhuman fruit at Carnew and Scullabogue — in a 
w^ord, tlie Wexford Yolunteers excluded all Catholics 
from their ranks, and it was the only county in Ire- 
land where intolerance completely usurped the garb 
and functions of religion in a manner so narrow- 
minded and unmanly. 

For some time peace and industry continued to 
hold the Wexford peasant ; but from the year 1792 
when the Catholics held meetings, and by private 
document and public petition, agitated the question 
of their rights — from this year to that in which the 
rebellion broke out, various portions of the Connty 
Wexford were prominent in this agitation, and in 
that referring to the tithe-paying, occasionally a dis- 
turbance occurred between the people and the 
militia or soldieiy, on a few occasions being attended 
with loss of life. 

♦ History of the "irish Insurrection. By Ed. Hay. P. 61 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 



m 



On the 30th of March, 1798, all Ireland was put 
under martial law and officially proclaimed in a state 
of rebellion, by Lord Camden. 

To this proclamation and the appearance of the 
North Cork Militia, commanded by Lord Kings- 
borough in Wexford, may jnstly be attributed the 
insurrection in that county. Up to this period the 
society of United Irishmen had made but little 
progress in Wexford ; neither had Orangeism on the 
other hand any ostensible being, until the North 
Cork, among whom were many indefatigable propa- 
gandists of the Orange system, set about proselytizing 
and swearing in the Protestants whose minds were 
easily inflamed, and who, being backed by the mili- 
tary soon openly endorsed and aided the persecutions 
perpetrated in the name of faith and justice, against 
the peasantry. The proclamation of the Lord Lieute- 
nant incited the military to suppress in the most 
summary manner all attempts at riot or disturbance. 
Thus empowered, these lawless ruffians went about 
the country inciting and swearing one portion of it 
into utter hostility to the other, creating feuds for the 
sake of punishing individuals ; and involving indivi- 
duals that whole districts might be plundered. 

Their enemies thus banded together as Orangemen, 
yeomen, militia-men, the peasantry had no resource 
but in the organization of the United Irishmen ; and 
although the persecution and intimidation under 
which the Catholic peasant and liberal Protestant 
then suffered, gave some slight impetus to the United 
Irish system in Wexford, still, it never was as exten- 



70 'ninety-eight and 'eortt-eight. 

sive as it slioiild have been, nor at all in comparison 
witli the development attained in other counties. It 
is no doubt but that when hostilities commenced the 
self-protective necessities of the people drove them 
under the banner of the republican Union, but who 
may not imagine a glorious and successful issue had 
the organization been perfected before the people 
were ci'ushed and tortured into self-defence. Who, 
on reading the history of the tinie, and beholding what 
was accomplished under such adverse circumstances, 
miffht not reasonablv feel the deep loss which the 
want of earlier concert upon a divine principle ot 
liberty entailed? 

There was no preconcert, no arrangement, no 
organization. 

The inhuman tortures instituted by the yeomen, 
the barbarities inflicted without regard to age or sex, 
the scourgings, pitch-caps, house-burnings, and mur- 
ders, then drew a distinct and bloody line between those 
who acted for, and under the protection of, the govern- 
ment and the people. No man was safe, no woman 
inviolable, private pique found vent in public ven- 
geance : and the magistracy falling into the hands 
of Orange fi\ctionists, was at once witness, judge, jury 
and executioner. 

On the twenty-fifth of April twenty-seven magis- 
trates met at Gorey, and two days after Wexford 7:-a.g 
proclaimed, the more fully to legalize their onslaughts 
on the people. Under the pretext of putting down 
rebellion, and with the fresh powers voted to them- 
selves, all persons suspected of being United Irishmen 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 71 

and all houses supposed to shelter pikes were sub- 
mitted to the rack and the flame. In this foray 
against life and property every Catholic was sus- 
pected, his house plundered, and his family hunted to 
the ditches and woods for shelter, which fact was in 
turn pointed against the man, family and house as 
conclusive evidence that all together were in conspi- 
racy against the state. Men were banged at tiieir 
own doors until near dead, and were then resuscitated 
only to be banged up again. Wet gunpowder was 
rubbed into the heads of some, and ignited when dry ; 
the heads of others were 'smeared and saturated with 
boiling pitch ; ears, noses, and other limbs were cut 
off or maimed, and under such tortures numbers of 
innocent and harmless men were forced during the 
weakness and insanity thus induced, to make confes- 
sions of what they did not know, and acquiesce in all 
that the violence or invention of their torturers dic- 
tated. 

Thus was the whole county in a state Ox disruption, 
and especially in the districts of Ross, Enniscorthy 
and Gorey. The most innocent people were fearful 
of presenting themselves in public, not knowing 
w^here a private enemy might step forward, armed 
with his badge of Orangeism, or in a militia uniform, 
to denounce, arraign, torture or murder him. Con- 
sequently business was at a stand-still ; the markets 
were unprovided with food, provisions rose in price, 
the people suffered and the military seeking supplies 
for themselves, only found another medium to carry 
out the design of Pitt and Castlereagh— to drive the 
country into rebellion that a pretext might be made 



for their completely accomplislii ng the ruin of the 
remains of the so-called Irish Legislative Indepen- 
dence, and the union of Ireland to EngUind. What 
with free quarters, slow tortures and all their attend- 
ant horrors, the people were driven to madness. 

General Abercrombie, who was sent to Ireland as 
commander-in-cliief, after a tour of observation, 
severely reprobated the military, and failing to 
impress on the ministers the necessity of a mild gov- 
ernment in Ireland, as well as being unwilling to be 
a party to their infamous plans, resigned his com- 
mand in the close of April. All the historians of the 
period, Protestant as well as Catholic, with only one 
exception, sustain the opinion of Abercrombie and 
trace all the hellish barbarities of that unfortunate 
year to the administration. That exception was Sir 
Eichard Musgrave, who, in his history, gives us a 
defence of torture, and who, on one occasion, when, 
being high sheriff of the County Waterford, he failed 
to procure an executioner to whip a whiteboy, per- 
formed the office himself, as Doctor Madden adds, 
" with all the zeal of an amateur performer." In 
this unconscionable scoundrel Lord Castlereagh, and 
his troupe of scourgers and assassins, the Beres- 
fords, Hem.penstals, Sandys', Gowans, Reynoldses, 
and Armstrongs found a voluminous and filthy 
apologist ; and he was, of course, faithfully rewarded 
with the office of Eeceiver of Customs, and a salary 
of £1,200 ($6,000) a year.* 

* In a few line?, the narrow-mindedness, intolerance, and general character of 
Musgrave, as well as his qualifications for an impartial historian, are admirabljr 
struck ofif in Barrington's Personal Sketches, when he states that " except on the 



THE WEXFOKD CAMPAIGN. 



n 



While Wexford was thus excited, tlie ai:>pearance on 
the public roads of cart-loads of prisoners from other 
counties, on their way to Duncannon fort, at once 
paralyzed the weak, and told the more hopeful that 
the distractions under which they suffered, were not 
wholly confined to them. Hay records that from 
twelve to fifteen cart-loads went through Ross at the 
one time. Soon^ under the jurisdiction of the Orange 
magistrates, wiio, with yeomen cavalry, attended by 
a regular executioner in case of necessity, scoured 
the country, great numbers were arrested and con- 
demned to transportation, a law being enacted to 
give su^b powers to these marauders. 



abstract topics of politics, religion, martial-law, his wife, the Pope, the Pretender, 
the Jes>-j'.ts, Napper Tandy, and the whipping-post," Sir Richard was " generally in 
his se ir,es." 

H?a work, to which I shall have occasion to refer, is entitled, " Memoirs of the 
Different Rebellions in Ireland, from the Arrival of the English," &c., and is 
what Francis Plowden calls it (Introduct. Hist, of Ireland since the Union, Vol. 1, 
p. 107), " an undigested heap of acrimonious falsehood and obloquy." It was 
compiled immediately on the suppression of the insurrection, and dedicated by 
permission to the Marquis Cornwallis, who, however, prevented the publication 
until after the " Union " was effected, lest, from its irritable and irritating nature, 
it might raise fresh dissension on the Catholic side, while opposition could be made 
available. When the work did appear, Cornwallis, who had permitted the dedica- 
tion, and delayed the publication to defeat the Catholics, but was also anxious to 
make the latter believe he was their friend, wrote a letter disclaiming Sir Richard's 
inscription and history, "as being a work tending to revive the dreadful 
animosities, wJiivh it was the duty of every good suhject to endeavor to com- 
pose." 

Cornwallis was a wary, unscrupulous, pliant, and plausible tool of Pitt. He at 
once managed directly himself, or indi^-ectly through, his aid, Castlereagh, to esta- 
blish Orange lodges, flatter the Protestants, and openly favor, to all appearance, 
the Catholics. "After his return to England," says Plowden (Vol. 1, p. 93), "he 
was never known, either in public or private, to have attempted to forward the 
emancipation of the Irish Catholics, to which, however, he ever aifected to have 
sacrificed his situation." For the curious in such matters, I will observe that in 
the third edition of Musgrave's work, 2 vols., Dublin, 1802, now before me, tiio 
dedication to Cornwallis is omitted. 

4 



ti ''nixp:ty eight and 

Emboldened by these depredations, the '' autliori- 
t'es " at Ross, Enniscorthj, Gorej, and other places, 
carried their loyalty to the extremest lengths ; but 
tiie wholesale massacres at Dunlavin and Carnew, if 
less torturous (because more deadly) put all previous 
loyalty to the blush. Having lashed and imprisoned, 
mostly on suspicion, twenty-eight farmers in a dun- 
geon under an old castle at Carnew, on the 25th of 
May, the Orangemen got drunk and held a council as 
t') the most expert mode of getting rid of them. It 
was proposed to sufibcate them, by means of lighted 
straw ; but the hoary villain w^ho made the proposition 
— through economy to save powder and ball, was 
scouted for his miserable spirit; and the majority 
desirous of seeing the "papists" die (and cursing the 
expense), brought out the poor fellows into the ball- 
alley, and there they were deliberately shot by the 
yeomen and a party of the Antrim militia, their 
officers sanctioning the deed. At Dunlavin, three days 
previous, thirty-four men were shot witliout a trial. 

Retribution is at hand ; we are on the eve of the 
Wexford Campaign. 

On the next night, Saturday, the 26th May, the 
chapel of Boolavogue, the house of the curate, John 
Murphy, and the dwellings of about twenty farmers 
in the neighborhood, were burnt by the yeomen. 
Ah ! It was not alone w^alls and rafters they set in 
flames. It was the fire of revolution they kindled ; 
and such a flame, too, as is not yet extinguished in the 
rebellious Irish heart. The chapel house of Boola- 
vogue is still flaming — still crackling and flinging up 



THE WEXFOKD CAMPMGN. 



n 



its bright embers on the dark pages of that year's 
history. 

On this niglit the people along the road from Car- 
new to Oulart turned out. Tlie dreadful tidings of 
devastation and murder hunted them like criminals 
from their hearths. The news, too, that Kildare was 
in arms roused them; and to the west of Gorey, on 
Kilthomas Hill, one of the ridges of the Slieve Bwee 
mountain, and farther south on Oulart, the insurgents 
mio:ht be seen o^atlierino; like sullen thunder-clouds — 
undecided, gloomy, thi-eatening, and portentous. On 
the morning of the twenty- seventh, Whit Sunday, 
those on Kilthomas Hill were dislodged from their 
position by a body of yeomen. The indecision in 
the ranks of the insurgents created a panic — they 
fled and were pursued with great slaughter, the 
death of their commanding officer, so exasperating 
the loyalists that they spared no man the}^ met, and, 
as Gordon admits " burned two Romish chapels, and 
about one hundred cabins and farm-houses of Roman- 
ists in the course of seven miles' march."* 



* History of the Rebellion in Ireland, &c., with an Impartial Account of 
the proceedings of the Irish Revolutionists, &c. By the Rev. James Gordon. 
The author was a Protestant clergyman having rectorships both in the counties of 
Wexford and Coi'k. He professed to write impartially. Musgrave accuses him 
of having written with more regard to policy than accuracy " for the obvious pur- 
pose of conciliating the priests and the popish multitude, and to secure the punc- 
tual payment of his titlies." Musgrave's coarse nature did not understand how a 
man might, could, would, or should write history under any inspiration save that 
of a party, a purse, or a poor-box. Gordon replying to him in a preface to a 
second edition, and in defence of the middle course he adopted states, that he. 
expected to be reprobated by the " irrational zealots of two opposite and mutually 
hostile parties." Considering the fury of sectional strife, and the white heats into 
which Protestant and Catholic writers and disputants of the per.'^d blew them.fielTaev 



?e 



How fares it at Oulart? 

The insurgents had increased in considerable num- 
bers, but they were unarmed, and, as Gordon states, 
''a confused multitude of both sexes and all ages." On 
that morning of Whit Sunday, the churchless minister 
of religion, surrounded by his hunted flock, un- 
sheathed the sword as the only symbol of deliver- 
ance. 

In the American Revolution a scene took place 
which is peculiarly apposite. An eloquent pastor 
on the frontiers of Virginia gave notice that on a cer- 
tain Sabbath he would preach his farewell sermon. 
The day came. The homely temple was thronged 
with hardy mountaineers. They over-filled the 
church and crowded the little burial-place. Every 
one was breathless. That intuitive knowledge of 
comino^ events, which at times aa^itates the most slu^- 
gish intellects, guided by peculiar circumstances, 
excited the assemblage to a marvellous anxiety. The 
theme of the day was the subject of the sermon. 
Peace or war — Liberty or death? He was a plain 
vigoi-ous speaker was this pastor. Every word fell 
on the audience like a mallet knocking ofi' their 
chains. He portrayed their suflerings, their wrongs, 
and dwelt on the sacred character of the War of Inde- 
pendence. " Aye," said he in conclusion, " in the 
language of Holy Writ, there is a time for all things, 
a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times 
have passed away " — and then in a voice of thunder, 

/r, Gordon's work is remarkably, though not altogether, free from polemical 
*«pertty. 



THE WEXFOKD CAMPAIGN. 77 

"there is also a time to fight. And that time has 
now come !" Pronouncing the benediction, he deli- 
berately removed his gown, and an armed warrior 
stood before them. Tliis soldier-priest was the Kev. 
Peter Muhlenberg, afterwards a Major General in 
the Pevolutionary Army. 

Father John Murphy's last sermon was preached 
in Boolavogue ; the time for preaching and praying 
was told out by the Orange incendaries ; and the time 
for fighting had come. '' Better," said he, " die cou- 
rageously in the field, than be butchered in the 
houses." Early on this morning, Hawtrey White with 
two troops left Gorey in search of the insurgents ; 
and on the south side one hundred and ten picked 
men of the North Cork regiment, commanded by 
Lieutenant Colonel Foote and six ofhcei's, marched 
from Wexford. From opposite directions the royal- 
ists were advancing on the people. The rapid move- 
ments of the North Cork, now joined by sixteen 
mounted yeomen, who made a diversion on the side 
of the hill, for a moment flung indecision amongst 
the insurgents. A volley from the royalists drove 
them up the hill, whither they were followed by the 
North Cork. A rapid movement on the part of the 
insurgents — an ambuscade — up come the North Cork 
incited by Foote : the rebels have opened to receive 
them, and out sprang the pikemen from their ambush, 
while the great mass of the people, men, women, and 
children, stood looking on the top of the hill. 

" We must conquer or perish," cried Murphy. A 
deadly vengeance steadied every pike. Dying groans 



78 

wBre in the men's ears, blazing homes had driven 
them to battle : one wild charge, and the royalist 
bandits rolled over, as if one monstrous corpse. Mus- 
grave, who is blind to the massacre at Carnew, and 
but half sees that at Dunlavin, is forced to admit that 
" the entire party was cut to pieces, except the lieu- 
tenant-colonel, a sergeant, and three privates." In 
this fiofht the insurojents lost five men and had two 
wounded. 

Thus it was that Oulart Hill became the Lexington 
of the Wexford insurrection. Musgrave, on the 
authority of Colonel White, states, that there were 
between four and live thousand rebels on the hill. 
All accounts prove that they were in great numbers ; 
but not more than three hundred took part in the 
action, only six of whom had fii-elocks. Cloney 
states "that the number of the peasantry who 
shared in this victory scarcely exceeded the number 
of the slain." The mounted yeomen fled to Wexford, 
and the cavalry under White, which had come from 
Gorey in the morning, not knowing of Foote's pre- 
sence on tlie south side of the hill, took fright at the 
position of the insurgents, beat a retreat, and, says 
Gordon, " After the killing of some few unarmed 
stragglers, and some old men who had remained in 
their honses, they returned to Gorey." 

Father Murpliy, the soldier-priest who thus nobly 
exhorted his people, was the son of a small farmer at 
Tincurry, in the parish of Ferns. He was educated 
at a hedge-school and afterwards in Spain, where he 
graduated and took holy orders at Seville in 1785, 



THE WEXPORD CAMPAIGN, T9 

Of course the writers in the English interest do not 
love him. Unfortunately he had been originally 
most active against the United Irishmen and was 
only dri\'en to the sword in defence of freedom when 
the royalists had burnt the altar dedicated to Free- 
dom's God. Cloney tells us he was a quiet inoffen- 
sive man. He was "a fanatic in religion," says 
Gordon, and but " too well qualified to inflame the 
superstitious minds of the ignoi-ant multitude." Hea- 
ven send us such fanatics ! Musgrave howls over 
his military career. "Considering the time of its 
duration, and the limits to which it was confined," 
says this delicate epicure in torture, " we must allow 
that it was as destructive as that of Attila, Gengis 
Khan or Tamerlane :" and truly they caught a Tartar 
in the ruins of Boolavogue. 

Victory flies on the wind and the fight of Oulart 
Hill struck hope and terror to such ears as heard the 
tale for weal or woe. 

Encamping for the night at Carrigrue, the insur- 
gents, flushed with success, marched on Monday 
morning upon the town of Camolin where they pos- 
sessed themselves of a quantity of arms which had 
been deposited there for safety. Thence, they ad- 
vanced on the ancient town of Ferns whither the 
loyalists had fled. Scouts and couriers with orders 
from Father Murphy, written in " red ink," says 
Musgrave, were dispersed over all the adjacent 
country, commanding at the peril of their lives, all 
persons capable of bearing arms to join his army 
forthwith. The loyalists, flying before the victors 



80 'ninety-eight and 'forty- eight. 

like emigrants before a prairie fire, having evacuated 
Ferns, the insurgents crossed the Slaney at Scara- 
walsh Bridge, halting for some time on Ballyorrell 
Hill, where they received considerable accessions; 
and by one o'clock Edward Roche and his reverence, 
General Murphy with, according to Musgrave, five 
thousand men, eight hundred of whoui, says Gordon, 
had guns, commenced the stormiiig of Enniscorthy. 

The town — situate on both sides of the beautiful 
Slaney, the most considerable portion being on the 
west — was prepared to receive them. The available 
positions were garrisoned. The North Cork under 
Captain Snow, burning to avenge the defeat of their 
comrades at Oulart, were posted on the bridge. The 
yeomen infantry under Captain Pounden held the 
Duffry Gate, at the western extremity of the town, 
commanding the public road to Eoss, on tlie south- 
west, Carlow on the west, and Xewtownbarry and 
Ferns on the north. Other posts were protected, 
and all within the town had been on the alert for 
hours, the fugitives having full early sounded tlie 
note of preparation. The insurgents opened the 
attack by driving a number of horses and oxen to 
disorder the troops at the western side quickly 
following up the movement with an irregular but 
furious onset of such force that the defenders of the 
gate retreated after a few discharges of musketry to 
the market-house, where they made a stand. A 
division of a thousand insurgents commanded by 
Thomas Synnott, an independent farmer of sixty 
years, waded the river on the north side under the fire 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 8l 

of both cavalry and iiifaiitiy, gained the oppcsito 
bank and made good their position in the eastern 
part of the town. A disorderly fight raged through 
the streets, the garrison being driven from place to 
place until tlie bridge, connecting the two parts of 
the town, became the chief post of peril and attack. 
The town was on fire in various 2)laces;the inhabitants 
exhibited the orange and green ribbons alternately, 
to suit the temper of their fright, and the feelings of 
the prevailing party. Confusion, uncertainty, dis- 
may sat upon the town, while one after another the 
various corps fled before the insurgents. The ^ortli 
Cork were soon routed at the bridge, and the yeo- 
manry, disordered, broken and completely terrified, 
fled with the utmost precipitancy to Wexford. 

In this fight, which lasted four hours, the royalists 
lost ninety men, including three officers, besides 
wounded ; the insurgents about 100.* Both parties 
fought with determined bravery. ■ A Captain Drury,t 
who had served in the American war, and was 
present at Enniscorthy, declared he had never expe- 
rienced a heavier or better directed fire than that 
with which the insurgents assailed DuffVy Gate. 
Snow, who commanded fhe ]^orth Cork, was made 
the su^bject of much animadversion because he did 
not rout the "rebels," and had to publish a pamphlet 
in vindication of himself Gordon defends him, and 
believes " his situation to have been such as might 

* Personal Narratives, &c., of Transactions in the County Wesford, in wtich the 
author was engaged in 1798, &c. By Thomas Clcney.— P. 14. 
+ Quoted by Musgrave. — P. 431, vol. i. 



82 ^-NINETY-EIGHT AND 

have puzzled the brain of even a BoDapartc' The 
facetious Musgrave, in the face of all other loyal 
accounts, coolly says, "when the action terminated, 
the rebels were completely routed and expelled from 
the town.'' "The loyalists, however, did not think it 
tenable," he adds, and in which I perfectly agree, 
for once, with the loyalists."^ 

And so it turned out that the flames of Boola- 
vogue had made a conflagration at Enniscorthy, and 
by its light the insurgents encamped on Yinegar 
HilL 

The news brought to Wexford by the defeated 
royalists was more w^elcome than the bearers of it; 
for the town of Wexford was not quite well afi'ected 
towards the authorities, and had been greatly excited 
by the victory of Oulart. It was now determined to 
organize a defence of this post, instead of meetiug 
the " rebels " on the open held. 

A few days previous Beaucluimp Bagnal Harvey of 
Bargy Castle, Jolm Heni-y ColchDugh of Ballj^teigue, 
and Edward Fitzgerald of Newpai-k, had been 
arrested on suspicion of treason, and lodged in Wex- 
ford jail. To gain time, divert tlie insurgents, or 
probably, with some faint hope of deluding them, it 
was proposed that Colclough and Fitzgerald, Harvey 
being kept as a hostage, should proceed to the insur- 
gent camp, to persuade them to disperse, but without 



* A regfular retreat being sounded, gave the military an opportunity of bringing 
avay their families and friends, together with a great many men, women, and 
chCdrea, who proceeded in the best rnaoner they could to Wexford." — Hay's Hist-t 
p. 141. 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 83 

aiUbority to make any terms. The appearance of 
the embassy from Wexford, had a directly opposite 
effect to that intended. Jnst previons to the arrival 
of Fitzgerald and Colclongh the greatest disorder 
and disagreement prevailed in the camp. Now that 
they had gone so far, and attained such considerable 
success, tlieir probable disability to sustain them- 
selves loomed np in formidable doubts. Men from 
various districts desired immediate action in their 
own localities, while others advised the complete 
disbanding of the nisurgent army to their homes. 
This advice to a great extent prevailed; the camp 
was almost deserted, when some of the retiring par- 
ties met the liberated messengers from the govern- 
ment authorities. The shouls of welcome which 
greeted them, arrested the already disbanded army ; 
the various groups returned to know the cause of 
such sudden rejoicing; and, by the time the gentle- 
men reached Yinegar Hill, the numbers w^ere as 
strong as before. 

Neither the message nor remonstrance was effec- 
tual. The fact of their presence showed the weak- 
ness of the authorities, and the prominent leaders 
taking advantage of the circumstances, harangued the 
multitude so much to the pui-pose, that Fitzgerald 
w^as detained in the camp, and Colclongh sent back 
with word that they would march immediately on 
the town. That night, the national army encamped 
on Three-Kock Mountain, within about three miles 
of Wexford. 

Early on the following morning, the scouts dig- 



84 



cerned the advance-guard of General Fawcett's 
reinforcement for the relief of Wexford. Fawcett 
halting at Taghnioii, tlie night previous, sent for- 
ward a detachment of eighty-eight, including eiglit- 
een artillerymen and two howitzers under Captain 
Adams. A party of the ijisurgents, accompanied by 
Thomas Cloney and the brave John Kelly of Killan, 
met them, and, after an engagement of ten or fifteen 
minutes, captured the guns and dispatched almost 
every man of the king's troops. General Fawcett 
hearing of the disaster, and remembering that discre- 
tion was the better part of valor, illustrated that wor- 
thy maxim by moving, as Cloney remarks, " with a 
much quicker pace back to Duncannon than he 
advanced." 

Colclough's message to Wexford produced the 
greatest consternation. The ships in the harbor were 
crowded with people, the streets were deserted, the 
shops shut. 

Soon after the success at the Three Rocks, the 
garrison of Wexford, composed of more than one 
thousand regulars and yeomen, under Colonel Max- 
well, sallied out to retake the howitzei'S ; confidently 
exjJGCting the promised aid trom General Fawcett. 
As they advanced within gunshot, Colonel Watson, 
proceeding ahead to reconnoitre, was shot dead ; 
which gave the instant signal for the retreat of the 
king's troops. The importance of the town, the 
repeated successes of the insurgents, the fright of the 
inhabitants, the consternation of the soldiery, pro- 
duced the utmost dismay. A council was called, and 



THE WEXFOEE CAMPAIGN. 85 

tte authorities prevailed on Bagnal Harvey, still in 
jail, to write a message to the united forces, which 
was forwarded by a deputation instructed to treat for 
the surrender of the town. The "rebel" prisoner 
was the virtual governor of the town at that moment, 
and the letter a ruse^ to make time for the escape of 
the late " authorities." The insurgent srenerals 
stipulated that the arms and ammunition of the 
garrison should be given up. Commissioners from 
the camp went into Wexford — but they found it 
evacuated by the soldieiy, who, in their rage, fired 
several places, spared neither age nor sex, and com- 
mitted the most violent excesses in their flio^ht. 

Here, indeed, was a victory! The town surren- 
dered; Wexford abandoned; officers, yeomen, magis- 
trates, some flying to Duncannon — others crowding 
the ships, and some, ruffians who never spared a life, 
begging their own — flinging themselves on the mag- 
nanimity of the " rebels." Thank heaven, the 
"rebels" could affiord to be magnanimous! 

The united forces entered. On the old walls and 
towers which silently chronicle the incursions of 
piratic Dane, and Anglo-]^orman robber, the green 
flag is proudly reared — green ribbons and branches 
of trees decorate the windows of almost every 
house — the prisons are unbarred — and there Bagnal 
Harvey, giving protection to many w^lio w^ould a few 
hours before have dashed his brains out, is pro- 
claimed, by the victorious "rebels," Commander-in- 
chief of the army of the people. 

The next day, June 1st, at a meeting of the 



86 'ninety-eight and -FORTY-EiailT. 

coiiiiiiaiiders of tlie united army held at Carrigbyrne 
camp, "Harvey was regularly appointed and elected" 
to the chief command, and Edward Roche to the 
rank of general oJBficer of the same ai'my. 

The insurgents being greatly augmented, it became 
necessary to divide them into different camps, as 
well for their better workino- as for the ireneral 
defence. One cam]i was formed on Windmills Hill, 
another portion marched towards Gorey, while that 
on Vinegar Hill, formed the day of the capture 
of Enniscorthy, continued a per?nancnt one to 
the end of the campaign. Trouble arising in the 
town of Wexford, in consequence of the lawless- 
ness of those characters which every revolution flings 
up. Captain Iveugh, of the united army, was ap- 
pointed commander. The town was now divided 
into wards and military districts, which appointed 
their own ofticors, on tlie republican rule. A regular 
parade was held morning and evening, and a military 
discipline strictly enforced. The insurrection, by 
this period, had grown so general, and the success of 
the insurgents so decided, that, Hay states, every 
person in the county thought it best to come forward 
and make common cause with them. 

In the meanwhile, the northern part of the county 
had its share of activity. On the 2Sth, Gorey was 
evacuated by tlie royalists. On the 1st of June, a 
detachment from the camp at Vinegar Hill, com- 
manded by Captain Doyle, and two soldier-priests, 
Moses Kearns and Xichohis Tvcdmond, drove Colonel 
L'Estranae and a partv of drao-oons into Xewtown- 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGX. 87 

bany, pursue*! thein, and after engaging the garrison 
of over five liuiidred troops, took pos-^ession of the 
town. The soldiers, however, rallied outside, re- 
turned, and while the insurgents were in a state of 
disorder, retook it. On the same day, a detachment 
nnder Father Michael Murphy, from the Carrigrue 
camp, suiFered a discomfiture, after a ver}- smart 
action of an hour, near the village of Balljcanew ; 
a great number of horses falling into the hands of rlie 
militia. 

Skirmishes and conflicts were incessant, in which 
the insurgents were chiefly successful, and almost 
generally the assailants. 

Who could have di-eamed that this peaceful, indus- 
trious anti-United Irish County of AVexford was such 
a nest of rebels? Who could have dreamed that 
within a week from the sounding of the tocsin, the 
king's right worshipful authorities would pi-opose a 
parley with a Protestant "traitor," as they called 
him, in prison, and treat with Romi>h rebels in their 
camp — who, I say, could have dreamed that such 
Arcadian rustics would have exchanp:ed, under anv 
provocation, the ploughshare for the musket, the 
sickle for the pike, and their cots and cabins for the 
canopy of Heaven ? It w^as not in the besotted sleep 
of di-unken Orange authorities to dream such fool- 
ish dreams. 

Ah ! they had been playing with a mine ; the flames 
of Boolavogue expL)ded it! 

The British commanders have at leno^th decided 
that this playing at rebellion must end. They must 



88 



end it with a coup de main^ to show how thej can do 
such things. Gorey, wdiich had been previously 
evacuated, but apparently uncared for by the insur- 
gents, became the object of particnlar attention on 
the part of the government. It was considered a 
position of great importance, as it opened up the road 
by the way of Ai-ldow, to the metropolis. Its garrison 
was now well supplied by tlie British. Keinforcements 
were crowding in daily. General Loftus had arrived 
with an additional force of fifteen hundred men. 
Colonel Walpole ai-rived from Carnew ; an organized 
cooperation with the garrisons of Carnew and I^ew- 
townbarry was arranged; the Carrigrue camp had 
been satisfactorily reconnoitered ; the insnrgents were 
to be attacked on all sides, and from the preparations 
made, and force to be employed against them, there 
was no doubt of their utter demolition. 

Tlie field was fought and won— the slumbering 
insurgents butchered on their Carrigrue couch, and 
deathless wreaths of loyal laurels twined around the 
brows of tlie astnte Loftus, and the courtly "Walpole ! 
Yea, all this and more was transacted over the council 
board in Gorey ; but the soldier even sleeping on his 
arms, dreams ; and the crafty courtier builds castles 
in the air. The wine cup hath its bubbles. 

On the -ith June the army in two divisions under 
General Loftus and Colonel Walpole, left Gorey on 
their mission. Loftus took the route towards Bally- 
canew ; Walpole, that of the Camolin road, to com- 
mence the attack on the Carrigrue camp. Lord 
Ancram, Lieutenant Colonel Scott, Sir Watkin-Wil- 



THii we:S:fokd campaign. 89 

liams Wynne, and )tlier officers commanding regulars 
and yeomen, were dispatched to various points 
surromiding the insurgents, to cooperate with the 
generah 

The generals of the popular forces at Carrigrue, 
however, had not been nnwatchful, and by a fortu- 
nate calculation had determined on attacking Gorey 
that very daj. The presence of these British generals 
was not polite under the circumstances ; and so it 
happened that the parties met much sooner than 
either expected. "Walpole's command and the insur- 
gents, chiefly led by Father Philip Eoche, met at 
Tubberneering. Neither party having scouts ahead, 
the collision was instantaneous, bloody, and decisive. 
''The rebels," says Gordon, "poured a tremendous 
fire from the fields on both sides of the road." A 
bullet passing through the head of Walpole,'^ sent 
that officer's dreams of military fame floating on the 
air, with which both his hopes and capacity had a 
remarkable affinity. The soldiers were thunder- 
struck ; the pikes flashed like lightning. 

'' In a little time their line broke," says a soldier 
of the Armagh militia engaged in the fight, " which 
we took for an omen of defeat ; but this was only 
to deceive us — for their two wings set up the war- 
whoop, and made for Gorey to cut ofi:' our retreat, 

* " This gentleman, an extraordinary favorite of Lord Camden, is said to have 
been sent to the County of Wexford, with the design that he should reap the glory 
of conquest, by the complete suppression of the rebels. A panic (which certainly 
surprised me, doubtless from my ignorance of mf.itary affairs,) appeared to ha-ve 
seized our officers in general, after the slaughter at Oulart and the taking of Ennis- 
corthy."— Gordon, Hist., p. 267. 



00 ^nixety-eiCtIit and px^kty-eigiit. 

wliicii had been ordered to ^'le made." Ah ! trickj 
rebels, to deceive lionest royahst troops ! and then to 
hem them in, and hng them to very death — inhnman ! 
The scene made many a loyal heart — like Colonel 
AValpole's — ^bleed. Hear this doleful eye-witness : — 
" It was truly painful, as we passed along, to behold 
our cannon on the road completely useless to us — the 
pikemen with exultation leaping over them, crying 
^ JErin-go-hragh, the English cannon is ours,' also the 
groans of the wounded, whose bodies, torn and 
pierced by pikes, while yet living, rendered the scene 
altogether awful !"'^ Useless cannon — it must have 
been " truly painful ;" exultant pikemen — ''awful!'' 
On such another occasion, when the tables were 
turned, we learn that the soldiers presented a '* noble 
spectacle of daring," and the scene was " extremely 
inspiriting." But then, pikemen — for whom the 
royalists had what is vulgarly but expressively termed 
a '* holy horror "— ^had no right to be victorious — no 
right to capture English cannons, which had belched 
fiery dogmas at them for seven hmidred years, and 
kept sending their forefathers and kinsmen, long 
before their allotted three score and ten, from their 
own o^ood land into kiuii'dom come. 

The soldiers tied, leaving over a hundred slain, 

* Vide " An Impartial Narrative of the most Important Engagements, Ac. &c., 
during the Irish Rebellion of 179S," p. 71. The impartiality of this book may be 
gleaned from the Dedication, which states that it is a "Record of the Glorious 
Achievements" of the Yeomanry of Ireland; to the lords and gentlemen of which 
it is inscribed, in testimony of the ''loyalty, courage, and patriotism" they exhibited 
under the " sacred banner of the king." It is a compilation by J. Jones, of letters 
from Orangemen and Yeomen, who were on duty at, or resided near, the insurrec- 
tionary districts. 



THE WPLtFORt) CA:vrPAIGN. di 

several officers prisoners, and three pieces of cannon. 
The fugitive royalists fju^ht and fled through Gorey. 
Sir AV^atkin Williams Wynne, having got the rear 
of his command clear of the town, used every effort 
to induce the troops to halt and form, but the panic 
was so great, that all his efforts were fruitless, and 
they rushed on precij)itately and in disorder to 
Arklow.'^ Some did not stop until they reached 
Dublin. 

The sound of the cannon brought the news of 
action to Loftus, who, hastening to Walpole's relief, 
found him utterly beyond it. lie paused a while on 
the battle-ground, and determining to enter Gorey, 
went in that direction, but found, in utter dereliction 
of his triumphant visions, the royalist cannons were 
now in " rebel " hands, and opposing his entrance, 
seemed to show a grim and traitor sympathy with 
their new masters. He then marclied to Carnew. 

And so the "rebels" and the royalists celebrated 
the 4tli of June, (" our gracious king's birth-day," 
says one of the latter parenthetically, " Oh ! may we 
never comm.emorate it with such a scene.") 

Gorey was evacuated, leaving the insurgents in 
possession of the whole county except Duncannon 
fort, Ross and [N^ewtownbarry. 

The force immediately under the commander-in 
chief, Bagnal Harvey, which had been stationed on 
the Hill of Carrigbyrne, since the 1st June, took up 
their position on Corbet Hill, within one mile of ]^ew 

* Musgrare, Tol. i., p. 497. 



92 ^KINETY-EIGHT AND -'fORTY-EIGHT . 



Koss on the 4tli ; and soon after their arrival were 
saluted witli some sliot and shell from the royal out- 
posts near the town. Ross was a highly serviceable 
position, and its attainment would open the highway 
into Munster to the possessor. It had been greatly 
reinforced and now held a garrison of about two 
thousand men, with several pieces of cannon. 

Early on the morning of the 5th, General Harvey 
sent one of his aides, Matthew Furlong, witli a flag of 
truce, and a written summons for the immediate sur- 
render of the town by the king's .comniander Major 
General Johnson. Furlono- was shot on reachino^ the 
outposts,^ which so exasperated his comrades that 
they became almost unmanageable. John Kelly of 
Killan, was sent with five hundred men to drive in 
the outposts whicli occupied the ditches and fields 
between Corbet Hill and the town, and kept up a 
constant and galling fire. Kelly's success was so 
great that numbers on the hill could not refrain from 



*"To shoot all persons carrying flags of truce from the rebels, appears to have 
been a maxim with his majesty's forces." Gordon, Hist., p. 142. 

The following is a copy of General Beauchamp Bagnal Harvey's summons to the 
commander of New Ross. 

" Sir — As a friend to humanity, I request you will surrender the towa of Ross to 
the Wexford forces now assembled against that town. Your resistance will but pro- 
voke rapine and plunder to the ruin of the most innocent. Flushed with victory, 
the Wexford forces, now innumerable and irresistible, will not be controlled if they 
meet with any resistance. To prevent, therefore, the total ruin of all property in 
the town, I urge you to a speedy surrender, which you will be forced to do in a few 
hours, with loss and bloodshed, as you are surrounded on all sides. Your answer 
is required in four hours. Mr. Furlong carries this letter and will bring the answer, 

^ "I am, Sir, &c., &c. 

"B. B. Habvey. 
" Camp at Cor'bet Hill, 
Ealf-pasl three o'clock, morning, June 5th, 1T98." 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 93 

pouring to the outskirts of tlie town, thus at the very 
onset disarranging tlie phms hiid down by Harvey, 
and agreed to by his counsellors. By this movement 
the battle of Ross was i-endered perhaps the most 
disasti-ous of the campaign, as w^ell as, Barrington 
remarks, " one of the most bloody and protracted ever 
fought in Ireland." 

Harvey's plan was to attack the town in three dif- 
ferent places at once, which no doubt would have 
proved successful; although he himself was totally 
unfit for the position into which the fortune, or rather, 
in his case, misfortune of war placed him. In the 
excitement caused by the death of Furlong, the 
insurgents were almost entirely lost to the control of 
their general ; and a furious onset was made in the 
direction of the Three Bullet Gate, the principal 
entrance to Ross, and which was, of the three points 
laid down in Harvey's plan, the most dangerous to 
attack. This danger was much increaeed by not 
assaulting the other points at the same time, thereby 
allowing the troops either to concentrate inside or 
come out on the rear of the insursrents. 

Dislodging tlie soldiers from the walls and ditches 
where they were advantageously posted, and routing 
the cavalry before them into the town, the gallant 
band of insurgents faced this memorable gate which 
was defended by a large force and two. six-pounders. 
This they tumultuously carried with great slaughter. 
Lord Mountjoy fallmg at the head of the County 
Dublin regiment. While engaged here a detach- 
ment of cavalry attacked the people in the rear, 



94: 'kixety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

The pikemen turned on them with great fury and in 
a few moments Cornet Dodwell and twenty-eight of 
the king's Fifth Dragoons fell, the remainder fleeing 
in dismay. Driving the army into the town, a despe- 
rate conflict was maintained* in the streets and houses. 
The royalists, their artillery captured and turned on 
themselves, everywhere fell before the furious people. 
Taking refuge in the market-house, they were, after 
a protracted contest, driven to the quays, and finally 
across the long bridge, over the Barrow and into the 
County Kilkenny on the opposite side. 

Three times during that eventful fifth of June was 
the royal standard levelled by the insurgents. Three 
times did the national force possess Koss. Three 
times did both sides rally and alternately dispossess 
each other who had alternately the upper-hand. 
Each time that the insurgents were victorious, num- 
bers of the men believing the fight over, gave them- 
selves up to plunder and drink ; and thus at last, 
from bare want of opposing nun:ibers, the English 
held the town ; while through the carelessness and 
criminality of their leaders a great mass of men were 
on the outside at the camp, not knowing what to do, 
or uninformed of what was taking place. Cloney, 
who was all through the fight, which lasted nearly 
thirteen hours, states that not much more than three 
thousand participated in the battle. Of the fourth 
time that the insurgents retreated to the Three Bullet 
Gate, Cloney says "it was quite disheartening to be- 
hold the smallness of our numbers, yet," he adds, 
'' the few who remained &eemed to prefer death to 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 95 

the abandonment of a victory wliich, throughout the 
day, appeared to be within their grasp. "'^ The pea- 
santry wlio were in the series of fights which occu- 
pied that day fought with a desperation unparalleled ; 
and under the most gloomy circumstances continued 
to cheer up and incite each other upon the enemy. As 
they fell wounded, they exhorted their comrades to 
the onset, some exhibiting their scars and gashes, and 
declaring the pride they felt in having bled for Ij-e- 
land ! Some, before whose eyes the death-mist was 
hovering, roused themselves with anxious efforts ; 
and others, in the last turbulent agony of life, calmed 
to inquire " is victory on our side?" and grasping at 
the comforting affirmative, ejaculated that " they 
died happy !" and rolled into the eternal slumbers, 
blessed visions of an Irish Republic coming between 
them and Heaven. 

It is conceded on all hands that had Harvey, during 
any period of the day, sent a reinforcement victory was 
certain. So little hope of success appeared to the 
royalists that the news of their total defeat was car- 
ried into Waterford, twelve miles, and ATexford, nine- 
teen miles distant, by fugitives from the king's troops. 
Such an issue was inevitable, had not the people, in 
temporary delirium of success, given the advantage 
to General Johnson, by getting drunk, at each rally 
being considerably weakened, and in which wretched 
condition great numbers were slaughtered — as they 
deserved to be : — for mark you — men who cannot con- 

* Persooal Narrative, pp. 39, 40, 



96 

trol themselves at such a time, coiikl not guard the 
state at any. 

Clonev states that there were about three hundred 
killed and tive hundred wounded on each side. 
Other accounts give the insurgents killed at five 
hundred ; while the government writers greatly 
augment the number. Certain it is that the majority 
of those slaughtered were not killed fighting, but 
when disabled by liquor. 

In the second capture of the town, Kelly of Killan 
was disabled ; and among others distinguished on 
that day, must be mentioned, John Boxwell of Sara- 
hill, " a Protestant gentleman of great respectability, 
high character, and undoubted courage," who was 
killed; Harry Hughes of Ballytreat ; AYalter Deve- 
reaux of Ballybrittas ; John Devereaux of Taghmon, 
then a lad, but afterwards famous as a general in the 
Bolivian war of independence ; Michael Furlong, 
brother to Matthew ; and a boy named Lett, only 
thirteen years old, who, by liis presence of mind, was 
material in rallying the peasantry and driving the 
royalists the second time to the bridge. AY ell may 
Barrington remark, "There is scarcely a trait of 
individual courage which was not exemplified during 
that contest ; the battle occasionally slackened, but 
never ceased for a moment." 

This battle was the turning point of the Wexford 
Campaign. 

As it had failed through drunkenness, it was suc- 
ceeded by the most barbarous cruelty in the massa- 
cre and burning of a crowd of royalist and Protestant 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 07 

prisoners in a barn at Scullabogiie, under tlie hill of 
Carrigbyrne, by some infuriated people who had, it 
is believed, beheld the slaughter at Ross. The chief 
agent of the crime was never discovered; Davis 
says it was not burned by the lighting men, and it is 
certain, that no leader of the peasant forces either 
sanctioned or incited the deed. 

Scullabogue may have been fired by some of the 
fugitives from Ross, inflamed to madness and re- 
venge by liquor and the butcheries there witnessed ; 
or by the friends or relatives of some who had fallen 
victims to Orange rage and brutality. But while it 
is natural to trace the deed to some such source, it is 
equally natural, and just as probable, that the parties 
engaged in the burning were incited by tools of the 
governmental factions, for the purpose of throwing 
disgrace on the insurgent arms, and creating a horror 
against them in the breasts of w^avering and unde- 
cided people all over -the country. The tactics of 
the British government in this respect, need no 
illustration to refresh the reader of history. At this 
particular juncture, men of loyal sympathies through- 
out the land had to blush for the massacres perpe- 
trated in the name of royalty and order. Their 
shame was to be obliterated only by arousing their 
half-latent antipathies by some^ fresh Catholic enor- 
mity. The fears already existing in the minds of 
Protestants on the subject of Catholic ascendency 
were to be branded and seared into the very marrow 
of their bones ; and so they were. 

It is not my intention to defend the crime, or the 

5 



98 'ninety-eight and 

Catholics who are accused of it, but to give what 
may seem a reasonable review of both sides of the 
question. 

Blood will have blood ; and looking at the aifair 
fearlessl}', and handling it w^ith no kid-glove affecta- 
tion, I can readily understand how little was needed 
to excite an infuriated, goaded, reckless mob to take 
such revenge for broken hopes, burned homes, vio- 
lated families, and tortures without number, as the 
maddening impulses of the moment and circum- 
stances afforded. Everv advantao^e had been taken to 
dispatch the peasantry ; infancy had no innocence, 
age no shield; sickness no recommendation to merc}^ ; 
maidenhood no inspiration of bravery, in the eyes of 
the factionists, who, under the name and warrant of 
*' authorities," ransacked, ravaged, and ravished, the 
homesteads, the men, and the women, of the County 
Wexford. 

" If the commanders of his majesty's forces," says 
Gordon, " acting against the rebels, committed any 
small errors in their proper province, ample compen- 
sation was commonly made by the press, in the 
dispatches to government published in their name, 
and other pieces of writing of a like nature. The 
numbers killed, if otherwise tlian on paper, might 
have alarmingly thinned the population of a county. 
I have taken much pains to make inquiry from 
various persons, who had been on the scenes of 
action, and could never find ground to think other- 
wise, than that the numbers of men slain among the 
rebels, in their several eno^ao:ements with the mill- 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 99 

taiy, were vastly less than thej were stated to be in 
the bulletins and public prints. I have reason to 
think, that more men than tell in battle were slain in 
cold blood. JN'o quarter was given to persons taken 
prisoners as rebels, with or without arms. For one 
instance — fifty-four were shot in the little town of 
Carnew, in the space of three days, and thirty-nine 
in one day in the town of Dunlavin ! How many 
fell in this manner, or were put to death unresisting, 
in houses, fields, and elsewhere, would be as difiicult 
to state with accuracy, as the number slain in 
battle."* 

By these means, and in addition to, and supersed- 
ing in its relentless nature, the political and religious 
fervor which animated the peasant, was kindled a 
spirit of personal revenge. He had some murdered 
father, or violated wife or sister, maimed brother 
or butchered babe to put in his account against 
his barbarian foe ; and he cherished the settlement 
of that account with hopes that only added fury 
to delay, and with satisfaction surmounting all 
others. 

So long as man is man, blood will have blood. 
Scullaboo'ue and Wexford Brido^e but reflect 
Carnew and Dunlavin. The same barbarities repro- 
ducing themselves under diflerent spell-words. 

Who sows a Carnew should exj^ect to reap a Scul- 
labogue.f 

* Gordon's Hist., p. 26S-9. 

t " To counteract the reports of religious intolerance, it must be stated that fifteeii 



100 'ninety-eight and 'forty- eight. 

The news of the latter, so calculated to sully the 
arms of the popular forces, which were of course 
immediately accused with its perpetration, suggested 
the publication of a series of resolutions adopted " at 
a meeting of the general and several officers of the 
United Army of the County Wexford," the conclu- 
sion of which is as follows. 

" It is also resolved that any person or persons who shall take 
upon them to kill or murder any person or prisoner, burn any 
house, or commit any plunder, Avithout special written orders 
from the commander-in-chief, shall suffer death. 

" By order of 

"B. B. Haryey, Commander-in-Cliief. 
"Feancis Beeen, Sec. and Adj. 

" Head Quarters, Carrickbtrne Camp, 
" June Qth, 1708." 

The day following General Edward Roche issued 
from Wexford Town a proclamation advising a 
thanksgiving for the triumphs, and conjuring unani- 
mity, confidence and obedience to the chiefs.^ 



or sixteen Catholics shared in the sorrowful catastrophe of Scullabogue, whence 
only two Protestants and one Catholic escaped." — Hay. Hist., p. 307. 

This may be the proper place, in referring to the atrocities of both parties, to 
record that the government troops, military and yeomen, burned the insurgent 
depot of wounded men in New Ross, the insurgent hospital at Enniscortliy with its 
seventy sick and wounded inmates, and murdered the patients in the insurgent 
hospital of Wexford when repossession took place under General Lake after the 
BatUe of Vinegar Hill. 

*I give the proclamation in full as a record of the spirit which actuated, and the 
feelings expressed by, at least some of the popular leaders. If it is not brilliant in 
style it is manly in conception and sensible in expression. 



tiiE WEXFOKD CAMPAiGN. lOl 

On the eighth, there being almost unanimous dis- 
content at Harvey's generalship, the camj^ removed 
from Carrigbjrne to Sleeve-keelter mountain, and 
here Father Philip Roche, who commanded at Tub- 
berneering, was elected generalissimo. 

Wexford town in the meantime continued under 



TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND. 

" Countrymen and fellow soldiers ! your patriotic exertions in the cause of your 
country have hitherto exceeded our most sanguine expectations, and in a short time 
must ultimately be crowned with success. Liberty has raised her drooping head : 
tliousands daily flock to her standard : the voice of her children every where pre- 
vails; Let us then, in the moment of triumph, return thanks to the Almiglity Ruler 
of the universe, that a total stop has been put to those sanguinary measures, which 
of late were but too often resorted to by the creatures of Government, to keep the 
people in slavery. 

'' Nothing now, my countrymen, appears necessary to secure tlie conquests you 
have already won, but an implicit obedience to the commands of your chiefs; for 
through a want of proper subordination and discipline, all may be endangered. 

"At this evenlfuJ period, all Europe must admire, and posterity will read with 
astonishment, the heroic acts achieved by people strangers to military tactics, and 
having but few professional commanders — but what power can resist men fighting 
for liberty ! 

" In the moment of triumph, my countrymen, let not your victories be tarnished 
with any wanton act of cruelty : many of those unfortunate men now in prison 
were not your enemies from principle ; most of them compelled by necessity, were 
obliged to oppose you: neitlier let a difference in religious sentiments cause a dif- 
ference among the people. Recur to the debates in the Irish House of Lords on the 
18th of February last ; you will see there a patriotic and enlightened Protestant 
Bishop, (Down) and many of the lay lords, with manly eloquence pleading for 
Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, in opposition to the haughty 
arguments of the Lord-Chancellor and the powerful opposition of his fellow 
courtiers. 

" To promote a union of brotherhood and afl'ection among our countrymen of all 
religious persuasions, has been our principal object ; we have sworn in the most 
solemn manner— have associated for this laudable purpose, and no power on earth 
shall shake our resolution. 

"To my Protestant soldiers I feel much indebted for their gallant behavior in the 
fteid, where they exhibited signal proofs of bravery in the cause. 

" Wexford, June 7th, 1798." " "^"^^^^ ^°'^^=- 



102 



the insurgent anspices to preserve a peaceable and 
well-regulated character, adopting the laws and rules 
of the new authorities. It was a miniature Republic. 
Lord Kingsborough and Captains O'llea and Bourke, 
who had been captured at sea by some fishermen, 
were prisoners in tlie hands of Keugh, the governor. 

On the ninth of June the Wexford forces from Gorey 
attacked Arklo\v in the County Carlo w and there foughr 
the most re^^ular eno^ao^ement of the whole insurrec- 
tion. General Xeedham commanded the king's troops, 
aided by Lord Farnham, Sir Watkin Wynne, Colonel 
Skerret, Colonel Bainbridge and others. At Colgreeny 
the insurgents divided themselves into two columns, 
one proceeding towards the sea-side, the other to the 
upper end of the town, intending to attack Arklow 
at both ends at once. The garrison, however, learn- 
ing this, and receiving large ]-einforcements, posted 
themselves to great advantage outside the town ; 
where the two forces encountered each other in a 
level field. 

They met face to face in a regular pitched battle. 
The fire began as regularly as between disciplined 
armies,* and was kept up for hours. The fortune of 
the day was various, but the insurgents at length 
threw the army into confusion by dismounting the 
royal cannon, which was followed up by singular 
braver3\ The ro^'al oflicers became alarmed. Gene- 
ral Needham had given orders for retreat. Victory 
apparently hovered over the rebels — when, alas, their 

* Rise and FaU, p. 358. 



THE WEXFOKD CAMPAIGN. 103 

ammunition gave out, and thej had to beat lack to 
Gorev, unpursned however by the army, for as Gor- 
don wisely adds, " a pursuit would have been very 
hazardous." 

At this battle the priest-general, Michael Murphy, 
leading on a division of pikemen, was torn to pieces 
by a cannon ball. He had been with the peasantr^r 
from the rising on the night of the twenty-sixth of 
May. " Under the veil of sanctity," says the analy- 
tical Musgrave, " he concealed a furious and san- 
guinary spirit." Three days previous to his death, 
feeling certain of capturing Arklow, he wrote to a 
friend in Dublin thus : — " We shall have an army of 
brave republicans, one hundred thousand, with four- 
teen pieces of cannon, on Tuesday, before Dublin ; 
your heart will beat high at the news. You will rise 
with a proportionable force." Truly was he a char- 
acter to make the loyal Sir Richard shudder. 

Another document preserved by Musgrave helped 
to give that person a dreadful opinion of the " furious 
and sanguinary spirit" of the clerical generals of 
Wexford. It is addressed to the Rev. James Doyle, 
and reads thus : — 

Rev. Sie: 

"■ You are hereby ordered, in conjunction witli Edmund 
Walsh, to order all your parishioners to the camp on Lacken 
Hill, under pain of the most severe punishment ; for I declare 
to you and to them, in tlie name of the people, if you do not, that 
I Avill censure all Sutton's parish with fire and sword. Come to 
to see me this day. 

"ROOHE." 
" Lacken Hill, June lUh, 1798." 



104 'ls^LN"ETY- EIGHT AND 'fORTY-EIGHT. 

On this same 14:t]iof June "The Council for directing 
the affairs of the people of the County of Wexford/' 
instituted a test oath to be taken " by the United 
Army in the most public and solemn manner," which 
bound each member to " persevere in endeavoring to 
form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of 
every religious persuasion, "&c., " and an equal, full, and 
adequate representation of all the people of Ireland." 
Bj^ this time the United Irish element was spreading 
in Wexford, and national views were beginning to 
supersede the purely religious and sectional ideas, 
which gave to royalist and " rebel " the violence 
that disgraced both, and which is only excused by 
the upholders of either, as the sole power thought fit 
.to cope with, or retaliate upon, the resources of the 
other. 

A detachment of the insurgents from Wexford, on 
the 12th, made an unsuccessful foray into Borris, in 
Carlo w, in search of ammunition ; and, on the 16th, 
had a smart skirmish with the army at Tinehah^, 
enriching their commissariat by the capture of a great 
quantity of cattle. Early on the morning of the 
19th, General Boche's camp, on Lacken, was sur- 
prised by the military from Boss ; but by the address 
of Thomas Cloney, the insurgents effected a safe 
retreat to the Three Bocks. 

Both the royalist and insurgent armies were now 
constantly on the move; the latter from necessity and 
late want of success; the former to make a combined 
effort for the annihilation of the other. Generals 
Lake. Dundas, Loftus, ISTeedham, Johnson, Eustace, 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 



lot 



Asgiil, Moore, and Duff, were all' on the move by 
various routes, towards Wexford and Yinegar Hill. 
The insurgents of the northern part of the county 
had concentrated round the latter, toward which, 
daily, ]3easants were flying from the scattered districts 
devastated by the king's troops. In the south the 
Three Rocks was the place of encampment, but the 
numbers were inconsiderable. 

Over the county a general alarm was spread. 

The town of Wexford became the chief rendezvous 
for the fugitives, who increased the uneasy state of 
the public mind, by tales of the ruthlessness of the 
advancing army. Tlie entrance to the harbor was 
blocked with gun-boats, and vessels of war were seen 
off the coast, which precluded all possibility of escape 
by sea. While in this dilemma, and chiefly at the 
instigation of one Thomas Dixon, thirty-six royalist 
prisoners were massacred on the bridge. The 
slaughter would have been much greater but for 
the timely arrival and interference of General 
Edward Eoche, Esmonde Kyan, and the Rev. Mr. 
Curran.^ 

Dixon was incited by revenge, a relative of his, 
the Rev. Mr. Dixon, a Catholic clergyman, having 
been tried, sentenced to transportation, and sent to 
Duncannon fort the day preceding the insurrection. 

On the march the insurgents suff'ered severely from 

* The massacre was " suddenly stopped" at seven in the evening. Father Curran 
having vainly supplicated the assassins to desist, commanded them to pray before 
they should proceed further in the work of death ; and having thus caused them to 
kneel, dictated a prayer that God v>ould shmo the same inercy to them which they 
ehould show tc the surviving prisoners.— GfOvHion^ p. 182. 

5^- 



106 



FORTY- KIGHT. 



tlie want of ammunition, tliougli in every skirmish tliey 
exhibited increased intrepidity. On the 20th, the day 
after General Johnson had forced Roche to retreat 
from Lacken Hill, the latter, with Cheney, encoun- 
tered General Sir John Moore's troops at Fooke's 
Mill, and, after a spirited engagement of four hours, 
was obliged to retreat to Wexford, having killed near 
two hundred of the enemv, the insuri2:ent loss beino: 
much less. 

But the last scene was approaching. AYliilo 
General Moore was on his way to Wexford, General 
Johnson directed his attention to Enniscorthy and 
General Lake, the chief in command, to Yinegar 
Hill, the other generals I have mentioned cooperating 
on all sides. 

While Father Roche and Clonev were eno-aorino- 
the former, some of Johnson's troops took up a posi- 
tion on the southern side of Enniscorthy, from which, 
however, they were quickly dislodged ; Father Moses 
Kearns heading a division of the Yinegar Hill camp, 
poured down on them and forced them back to the 
main body, a mile distant from the town. 

On the morning of June 21st Lake and Johnson 
commenced their respective attacks. The insurgents 
were very badly prepared to meet them; but never in 
that brave campaign did they exhibit greater brav- 
ery. Father Kearns fiercely contested the entrance 
to the town with General Johnson, wdiile AYilliani 
Bai-ker *' who had seen some service on the Continent" 
performed miracles of valor in defence of the Bridge. 
With but a few pounds of powder the popular forces 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 107 

defended the town for two liours with the most deter- 
mined spirit against an army of great force, perfectly 
appointed and abundantly provided with every 
necessity. The brave, noble felk)ws, for these two 
hours disputed possession, meeting the well-armed 
soldiers, hand to hand in the sti'cets, amid the roar 
of guns, the conflagration of houses, enveloped in 
smoke, and surrounded with the cries of women, and 
the revengeful shouts of their comrades whom they 
could at times scarcely discern. 

Enniscorthy was taken, but who will say that these 
heroes were defeated ; wdio can call a sacrifice a 
defeat ! 

The Martyr is the victor in his death. 

Vinegar Hill is a l)eautiful eminence standing 
directly between Enniscorthy and the river Slaney, 
which winds round its base to the town. On the top 
of this hill stands a dilapidated stone building, 
indicating, as it were, in its shattered strength and 
ruined prominence, the fortunes of the day which has 
fixed its name and pictured its figure immortally on 
the pages of history. Here the forlorn hope of the 
Wexford Insurgents are collected ; a great mass of 
men and women, with about two thousand arms, and 
as Hay tells us, only two charges for cannon, of which 
they possessed a few disabled pieces. 

Against them Lieutenant General Lake has mus- 
tered twenty thousand regular troops. 

As day broke Lake disposed his attack in four 
columns ;"^ and with the dawn, bomb-shell, and can- 

* Major Generals Johnson and Eustace commanded the column which operated 
against Enniscorthy, " clope ur ier Vinegar Hill on the right ;" Lieutenant General 



lOB ^NINETY-EIGHT AND 'FORtY-EIGHl*. 

non opened on the desperate heroes on the hilL With 
a cheer of defiance they return the fire. Now 
streams of shell and grape poured on the four sides 
of the insurgent position ; every volley, like a cataract 
roaring through the gorges of a mountain side, was 
answered by a wild mocking echo from the granite- 
souls it broke upon. Gradually and cautiously the 
troops advanced up the slopes — nearer and nearer, like 
a serpent tightening its coils upon its victim. The 
peasantry maintain their fire until the flint is useless 
for want of powder. But there is that in these men's 
souls which is ignited by an immortal spark. The 
leaders exhort the men, and with that greater elo- 
quence of action, incite them with examples of daring 
and. defiance. Closer and closer the English troops 
advance — now the women — wives, mothers, daugh- 
ters, sisters, forgetful of all, save that inherent spirit 
of heroic guardianship over man, which is their gift 
from Heaven, and which ever is the purer when the 
danger is blackest — now these women dash through 
the insurgent ranks to the sides of those dear relatives 

Dundas ocraraanricd the centre column, which was supported by a third column 
under Major Grenerals Sir James Duff and Loftus; and the fourth column was under 
the honorable Major General Needham. The Earl of Ancram,Lord Roden,LordBla- 
ney, and Lord Glenworth were in the battle, the two first named in command of caval- 
ry regiments and to wliom General Lake gives " great praise in his dispatch" to Lord 
Castlereagh. Major Generals Hewitt and Cradock in addition to the above-named 
generals are cited as deserving of " great gratitude " for their share in the action. 
Also " honorable mention " is made of Colonels King, Vesey, Canipbellv and Hand- 
field, Lieutenant Colonels Blythe, and Reed, Captains Nicholson, Bloomfield, 
Crawford and Lieut. Sandys who was killed. (See Lake's dispatch quoted in 
Musgrave's appendix.) 

General Needham's infantry did not arrive in time to be effectual, but " by rapidly 
advancing with liis cavalry, he was able to cut off many of the fugitive rebels." 
{Musgrave.) The "rebels " chiefly made their escape through the opening his in- 
fantry was to have occupied. 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. 109 

wtorn they are to clieer to victory, or sootlie in 
death. 

It is too grand — too dreadful — too bloody — enough : 
in a torrent of flame and smoke, men and women, 
the leaves and branches of the insurgent forest are 
swept down the ruthless cnrrents of devastation and 
death. 

The leaders of the insurgents on this day accord- 
ins: to the authorities I have been able to consult 
were the priests Phihp Eoche, John Murphy, Moses 
Kearns, and Clinch ; witli Edward Fitzgerald 
Esmonde Ryan, xlnthony Perry, Win. Barker, John 
Ila}^, and, it is probable. Garret Byrne. 

General Edward Roche, whose attendance was 
desired at Yinegar Hill and who had been sent to 
collect reinforcements, was delayed as we have seen, 
in staying the massacre of Wexford Bridge. In the 
excitement it was with great difficulty he could get 
the ear of the populace ; but owing to his energy he 
was ultimately enabled to lead a body of men out of 
the town. He arrived, like JSTeedham's infantry, too 
late for the fight at the hill ; but he succeeded in cover- 
ing the retreat of the insurgents to Wexford, by 
arresting tlie murderous career of the cavalry in pur- 
suit of them. 

Wexford town, after being in the possession of the in- 
surgents for twenty-three days, surrendered to its loyal 
prisoner. Lord Kingsborough, as it had done before to 
its " i-ebel " prisoner Bagnal Harvey. Three depu- 
ties from the popular forces with three officers, their 
prisoners, were sent to the successful generals of the 



110 

king's troops, with letters from Lord Kiiigsborough 
statino: that Wexford would be delivered to them on 
condition that persons and property should be res- 
pected. Thomas Cloney, Edward Hay, and Robert 
Cartj were the deputies from the people. 

The terms proposed by the insurgents and signed 
officially by the governor of the little republic were 
to the following efiect: — 

" That Captain McManiis shall proceed from "Wexford towards 
Oulart, accompanied by Mr. E. Hay, appointed by the inhabit- 
ants, of all religious persuasions, to inform the officer command- 
ing the king's troops, that they are ready to deliver np the town 
of Wexford without opposition, lay down their arms, and return 
to their allegiance, provided that their persons and properties are 
guaranteed by the commanding officer ; and that they will use 
every influence in their power to induce the people of the coun- 
try at large to return to their allegiance also. These terms we 
hope Captain McManus will be able to procure. 

" Signed, by order of the inhabitants of Wexford. 

"Matt. Keugh." 

General Lake, of whom it has been said that he 
could not justly be accused with one act of clemency 
during his military career in Ireland — gave them the 
following reply. 

"Lieutenant General Lake cannot attend to any terms by 
rebels in arms against their sovereign ; while they continue so he 
must use the force entrusted to him, with the utmost energy, for 
their destruction. To the deluded multitude he promises pardon, 
on their delivering into his hands their leaders, surrendering theii 
arms, and returning with sincerity to their allegiance. 

"Signed 

"G. Lake. 

«« Ihmiacorthy, June I'ind, 1798." 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAIGN. Ill 

It is needless to state that the leaders were not 
delivered up ; and that the " utmost energy " was 
used for tlie destruction of the people. 

The head of Kengh — " the subscriber of the inso- 
lent proposals"^' was soon severed from his body 
and raised above the court-house on a pike. Uncon- 
sciously they paid the tribute due him, and placed 
his head in death, where it was in life, erect — above 
their law and loyalty. 

So ended the campaign in Wexford ; and then 
began the trials and the executions. 

Looking over the records of this campaign there is 
no one who can deny that it reflects honor and credit 
on the Irish. What Barrington says in his " Eise and 
Fall" on the Wexford insurrection may well be 
adopted by any who attentively scans the period. 
He writes : '' The insurgents were unpaid — many 
of them nearly unclothed, few of them well armed, 
all of them undisciplined, with scarcely any artillery, 
no cavalry, their powder and ammunition mostly 
prepared by themselves, no tents or covering, no 
money, no certainty of provisions, obedience to their 
chiefs, and adherence to their cause were altogether 
voluntary. Under these circumstances, their condi- 
tion must have been precarious, and their numbers 
variable. 'No one leader amongst them had sufficient 
power to control or counteract their propensities, yet 
they fought with wonderful persevei-ance, address 
and intrepidity." All this is true of that gallant 
band ; and more. 

* Creneral Lake's letter to Lord Castlereagh, June 23d[, 



112 'ninety-eight and 'forty- eight. 

In the lieat of excitement, writL.ing under the per 
sonal torture inflicted not only on themselves but or 
their women, by the royalists, they forgot not, or 
rather acted up to, that natural galhintrj^ which is 
fully accredited to even the humblest and most unedu- 
cated Irishman. It is recoi'ded of even the darkest 
moments of the insurrection, that " the fair sex was 
respected even by tliose who did not hesitate to rob 
and murder ;" no one instance existing of a female 
being injured or violated by a "rebel."* The same 
manly consideration was extended to children by the 
insurgents ; Hay telling us that some who were 
abandoned or lost by their loyalist parents, were taken 
care of by tlie so-called ''rebels," and grew up 
cherished and protected by them. 

The importance of the Wexford Campaign may 
easily be seen from the number of generals employed 
by the government, whose loss, as shown by Charles 
James Fox in the British senate, was ten thousand 
men. It is computed that from thirty to thirty- 
five thousand Wexfordians turned out ; and it 
is to be lamented that the insurrection, however 
glorious, however brave, or however disastrous, was 
not based upon those principles of union, which would 
have given it the greatest hopes and means of deli- 
verance. I allude to its not being a rising of 
United Irishmen ; for I cannot call it one. Neither 
can I see that it was at any time during the struggle 
thoroughly United Irish. Lacking organization, its 
first impetus was received from religious causes. At 

* Hay, p. 217. 



THE WEXFOKD CAMPAIGN. 113 

first the people rose as Catliollcs, because tlie priests 
were driven to it: and growing in importance from 
their victories, great nmnbers joined them on national 
grounds ; yet even in the heat of it I find one of its 
most important leaders, the heroic priest who fell at 
Arklow, taking written grounds against the enemy 
because they were " heretics." while many of the 
leaders on his own side were Protestants, or so-called 
" heretics." 

Had the campaign in Wexford been sustained, it 
would soon have been, as it was steadily becoming. 
United Irish. Had the leaders paid more attention 
to Gorey, and marched directly on Arklow, when in 
the flush of their first victories, Dublin was in their 
hands. The day of New Ross is at once perhaps the 
proudest and the gloomiest in the campaign ; memo- 
rable at once for the fiercest battle, as well as the 
first fatal step downwards of the men of Wexford. 
It broke up the chief camp, and gave rise to recrimi- 
nations amongst, and feelings of doubt in the capacity 
of some of the most prominent men. 

These clergymen, too, who had bravely led the 
peasantry throngh many a field, had been the most 
strenuous antagonists of the United Irish movement 
in Wexford before they were driven to the field to 
defend their altars ; and thus annulled and defeated 
that power which would have proved their salvation. 
By this means all attempt at organization proved 
fruitless ; and though we cannot withhold our admira- 
tion of the campaign, we cannot at the same time be 
blind to the disasters o^rowino- out of the sectional 
grounds which facilitated it. 



Ill NINETY-EIGHT AND FORTr-EIGHT. ' 

We must take warning from the past. 

Irishmen must learn that the cause of Ireland is 
not a Catholic cause, not a Protestant cause, not a 
Presbyterian cause. It is the cause of Freedom — the 
cause of God ! And who will dare affix to the Creator 
the partialities or antipathies which grow out of 
either the strength or the weakness of the human mind. 

The Protestant clergyman, William Jackson, and 
the Catholic jDriest, Philip Poclie, w^orshipping the 
Supreme Being at different shrines, sacrificed them- 
selves for the one idea of truth and justice, npon the 
one altar of Irish Freedom, to prove that Liberty was 
not the monopoly of any one creed or class — that it 
was not alone Protestant or Catholic, but both ; and 
above all that God was greater than any tabernacle 
raised to him. 

These are not isolated instances of the union of 
creeds in the shadow of the scaffold. 

As the streams of various climates leaping from 
their mountain beds or valley cradles, rush over, or 
ruminate through the world, growing heartier, state- 
lier, more impetuous, more resistless with every expe- 
rience, until they sacrifice their accumulated strength 
and identity in the eternity of ocean — and ocean like 
a mighty choir rolls forth the combined harmonies 
of all ; so Death, receiving the patriotic, variously 
inspired life-streams of Catholic, Protestant, and Pres- 
byterian ardor, hymns forth unceasingly the glories 
and passions of all, indistinguishably harmonized, to 
inspire the living with that devotion and unity which 
qualifies the scaffold to be the teacher and benefactor 
of the Irish. 



THE WEXFORD CAMPAlGJN. 115 

It teaches, in tones unmistakable, tliat Irishmen 
must unite, not on fanatical but fraternal grounds ; 
not on sectional but sacred grounds; not as bigots 
but as brothers. 



THE TRAIL OF THE ME:N'APII 



THE TRAIT- OF THE MENAPII. llD 



THE TRAIL OF THE ME]S"APIL 

The Menapii ? 

Although Aiiastasiiis, the librarian of the Yatican, 
writing to Charles the Bald, the patron of John 
Erigena in the ninth century, alludes deprecatingly 
to Ireland as " the very ends of the world,"* he 
might have known better. Geographically speak- 
ing, it was one of the ends of the then eartli ; but men- 
tally and intellectually it had been for centuries the 
centre. f 

* The passage in which the allusion occurs is noteworthy. He was " astonished 
how such a ' vir barbarus,' placed in the very ends of the world, so remote from 
conversation with mankind as this Irishman, John Erigena, was, could comprehend 
such things with his intellect, and transfuse them so ably into another language." 
"So ancient," says Cliristopher Anderson in his "Historical Sketches of the Ancient 
Native Irish," &c., Edin., 1828, " so ancient is the ignorant prejudice against the 
fine natural capacity of this hitherto neglected people." This John Scotus Erigena 
was an eminent scholar and philosopher of the ninth century, notices of whose 
great learning and works may be found in the writings of Bishop Bale (1495-1563) , 
Ware; Colgan; Warton's History of Poetry; Turner's History of Anglo-Saxons ; 
Anderson's Treatise quoted, and others which the various references will suggest. 

t Its scholars had been the school-founders and preceptors of Europe. To have 
studied in Ireland, like Alfred the Great, and Willibrord, the Northumbrian— who, 
says Alcuine (a famous Saxon writer and correspondent of Erigena, quoted by 
Anderson), " studied twelve years in Ireland, under masters of high reputation, being 
intended for a preacher to many people," was one of the greatest recoumiendations 
of Christianity as well as learning. The Latin and Greek of the Irish was famed, 
and Erigena even translated one of Aristotle's works into Chaldaic and Arabic as 
well as Latin. In the two earliest schools of learning in Europe, Paris and Pavia, 
were the celebrated Irish scholars, Clement and Albin. It is recorded that such 



120 NINETY-EIGHT AND ' FORTY- EIGilt. 

Anastasius should not have been astonished at any- 
thing coming from an Irishman of his day, for much 
of everything in the shape of learning had a begin- 
ning and no end in that " end of the world." He 
had heard no doubt of the works and maps of Clau- 
dius Ptolomeus, of Alexandria, in Egypt, a celebrated 
astronomer and geographer in the Greek tongue, who 
gave an account of the world as then known, and 
departed from it about the year of Christianity, 
140. From Ptolemy he might have made himself 
acquainted with the great cities, the heroic races, and 
the sacred monuments of the island : but it is not for 
me to dwell here on either the ignorance or the pre- 
judice, or both combined — the "ignorant prejudice" 
of Anastasius, but explain in as few words as needful, 
before entering on the narrative, wherefore comes 
tlie title which heads this page : — The Teail of the 
Menapii. 

Manapioi or Menapii, is the name found on Ptole- 
my's maj) of Ireland for the people inhabiting the 
territories now known as Wexford and Waterford. 
The city of Menapia, one of the ten chief cities of 
L'eland in the second century, was what is now the 
town of Wexford. 

The Menapii were a colony from Belgic Gaul, 
" chief nation of the Celts," and are known as Belgge. 
Viri Belgici, and, by our old Irish writers, Fir-Bolgs. 
This Leinster colony of Fir-Bolgs or Belgge wa? 

men went to the European connnent, proclaiming that they had " wisdom to sell 
and demanded only food and raiment for reward." — Nolker Balbalus cited bj 
Anderson, p. 8. 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPIt. 12 1 

settled over three centuries before the time of. 
Ptolemy, having arrived at Inver Slainge — the 
bay of Slaney — two centuries before the Christian 
era. Csesar gives some account of the tribes of 
Belgge, the Bellovaci, Menapii, Atrebates, Hemii, 
&c. Tlie Menapii are spoken of as a very valiant 
people, whose manner of making w^ar on the Romans 
was, by retiring with their property, cattle, &c., into 
the woods, morasses, and inaccessible places, and 
thence making sudden assaults on the enemy ; " a 
mode of warfare," says Dr. Mac Dermott, " precisely 
similar to that adopted by the Irish clans against the 
English."* 

In the third century those Menapians of Wexford 
gave a Roman emperor to Britain, or rather he gave 
Britain to himself, and with his owm red right hand 
grasped the imperial purple and flung it on his shoul- 
ders, where it haughtily hung for more than seven 
years.f 

The Trail of the Menapii ! 

May we not find on the fields and mountains of the 
Wexford Campaign traces of the old Fir-Bolg nature 



* Notes to Annals of the Four Masters, p. 194. 

t Caransias, a native of the maritime Menapia, was bred up to play with and 
master the sea. He took service under the Roman Emperors, Diocletian and Maxi- 
mian, tamed the Scandinavian sea-kings, and the Franks and Saxons for them, 
became very popular, and in 285-287, or 288, it is variously stated, assumed the 
imperial purple, defeated Maximian's forces, compelled Maximian to acknowledge 
him associate emperor, and took Britain for his share. For a more extensive notice 
of the Menapii, and this emperor, see MacDermott's able and erudite annotations to 
Owen Connellan's translation of tlie " Annals of the Four Masters." Geraghty, 
Dublin, 1846. Also, Coesar (Oommentariorum De Bello Galileo, lib. II., IV.) Usher,. 
Ware, Camdf^nj and the numerous autlmrities cited by Dr. Mac Dermott. 





122 'ninety-eight and 'fokty-eight. 

— tracks of the Celtic stuff — bloodinarks of the valiant 
Menapii whose prowess in Gaul cost Caesar so much 
brain and blood — and whose resistance, if power is 
measured by it,"^ bums like a lamp above their heroic 
history that all ages may read — not their disgrace in 
being overran, but the power of the conqueror they 
resisted. 

May we not, through the colonization clouds that 
hover, and loom and settle over these Menapian 
towns and districts, in the intervening centuries, 
observe the Fir-Bolg lightning flashing out in mad 
recognition of its ancient atmosphere ! 

The modern Menapii certainly have fair claims to 
the tribute paid their ancient fathers and brethren, 
the Gauls — that, "without possessing military science 
they were the most warlike nation of antiquity." 

The military science of Ca3sar conquered the an- 
cient Gauls. 

The want of it 1)rought the modern Menapii to 
make terms with the English. 

Caesar paid due honor to the valor of his foe ; to be 
worthy of his steel was in itself reputation. 

The English generals not being Caesars, neither 
conferred honor on their foe, nor won it from them. 

Having recognized and gotten on the trail of the 
Menapii let us follow it. 

On the track of many of those noble spirits whom 
we have noted at various points, the scaflold suddenly 
rises up and bids us go no further. It warns back, 

♦ "Power Is measured by resistance." — Da Quincey's " Cajsars." 



THE TKAIL OF THE MENAPII. 1^3 

for here tliese good-intentioned men are forced to wind 
lip tlieii eartlilj affairs, and like the characters in 
some grim romance, are compelled to sign the deed 
in blood. 

The terms entered into by the leaders with Lord 
Kingsborough were totally disregarded. 

General Lake would not confirm Lord Kingsbor- 
ongh's promises, but issued a proclamation for the 
apprehension of the insurgent chiefs. 

The whole thing was a ruse to possess themselves 
of the town and lay hands on the chiefs. ^'My 
lord " makes terms with the rebel generals, or rather 
with the inhabitants of the town. Many lay down 
their arms. The king's general scouts the right of 
Lord Kingsborough to make such, or any terms, will 
not fulfill the promises in the name of the king, law, 
justice and the like ; and in fact, will not answer his 
lordship's dispatch. His lordship, to keep the better 
face on the matter, stoutly persists, stating that 
General Moore, who entered Wexford, had made 
him commander of the town. Lake also persists, and 
being the stronger of the two, does it with effect — 
grasping the foolish-minded rebels who were seduced 
from their wild ways and weapons — j^onncing upon 
the chiefs who were chivalric enough to expect 
soldier treatment, and blistering the Bridge of Wex- 
ford with the affluent and hot blood of all. 

Those loyal lords and generals understood each 
other. It was the fault of the insurgents if they did 
not understand them. God knows they had sufficient 
opportunity. 

Bagnal Harvev heard at his castle of Bargy that 



l24 

the terms of surrender were but so much thistle down 
before the storm}' passion of the king's representatives. 
Flying to Colclough with the news, he discovered 
that his friend, taking with him his wife and child, 
had found temporary refuge in one of the Saltee 
Islands, whither he followed. They were captured 
in a cave disguised as peasants on the 23rd June. 

A court martial was instituted. 

The place of execution was the bridge. 

The first tried and condemned was Father Philip 
Eoche. He came unarmed to surrender himself on 
Kingsboi-ough's promises. His anticipation of any- 
thino' save the treatment usual in such cases, and what a 
soldier expects, was so little that he actually advanced 
within the En owlish lines. He should have known 
better. On being recognized, he was ignominiously 
dragged from his horse, pulled by the hair and 
bufieted through the camp to Wexford jail. The 
royalists could not easily forget that powerful form. 
It had swayed and plunged over many a fight, like 
the mast of a laboring craft, borne up by, and indi- 
cating the strength of the waves by which it was 
surrounded. As it stood before the gale, so did the 
royalists fly before him. As it rose, or rocked, or fell, 
so fell, and shook, and rose the hopes of the royalists. 

They had him now. A thousand hawks around a 
toiled eagle. 

With very little delay he was dragged to the place 
of execution, and with a second rope, his weight 
having broken the first, ended his life in great 
torture. 

Boche was tall^ turbulent and excitable. He was 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPII. 125 

a man of action, brave even to recklessness, and like 
all brave men, generous and humane, as even his 
religious enemies have testified. If he was, as his 
foes say, an indulgent liver, they have good reason 
to know he was also an indulgent victor. 

Keugh the governor of the town, was next put on 
trial and suffered at the same time with Roche. The 
head of the former, as before stated, was placed over 
the court-honse. After being decapitated the bodies 
of both were stripped, and being subjected to the most 
indecent and inhuman brutality were flung into the 
river. 

Keugh was an aged gentleman and officer living on 
half-j)ay. To him the organization of the town, after 
it fell into the hands of the people, was entrusted. To 
him, by the observance of a strict military discipline 
and the enforcement of regularity and subordination, 
were the inhabitants highly indebted, for the pro- 
tection of life and property. 

Harvey was executed on the twenty-seventh and 
with him an old gentleman named Cornelius Grogan 
of Johnstown, who had been high sheriff for the 
county, and member of parliament for the town of 
Enniscorthy. One of his brothers was killed fighting 
against the " rebels " at Arklow, and another had 
been badly wounded in the service of the king. He 
had been surrounded by a straggling party of 
insurgents, forced on horseback and brought into 
Wexford under peril of his life. To give them- 
selves some importance, he was also, unknown to 
himself, made a commissary. Foi these crimes he 



126 'ninety-eight and 

was hanged. The entire proceedings relative to this 
old man wei-e thoroughly foul, and indicate the non- 
chalance with which the " authorities " butchered 
^'justice " and the people. Their license was unlim- 
ited as was their villainy, and respectively tended and 
guarded by each other, both combined to write such 
pages of history as can only arouse feelings of heart- 
sickness, disgust and a hope for the retributive time. 
" It appeared before Parliament, upon interrogating 
the president of the court, that the members of the 
court-martial which tried him, had not been sworn — 
that they were only seven instead of thirteen, the 
usual number — that his material witness was shot 
by the military, while on the road between Johns- 
town Castle and Wexford, to give evidence of Mr. 
Grogan's entire innocence." * 

Grogan's estates valued at from £8,000 to £10,000 
per annum, were, in the opinion of Doctor Madden, 
"the dangerous objects that attracted attention" 
from those wdio hoped to profit by their confiscation. 
Pillaging, publicly and privately, was one of the 
chiefest incentives to loyalist vigilance, and not alone 
a ready source of perquisite for the cunning syco- 
phantic rabble, but a certain means of judicious 
reimbursement for time spent in looking after the 
king's — and their own — affairs by even titled Orange- 
men : for instance we learn from Gordon,t that Lord 

* » Rise and Fall," p. 365. 

t " Doubtless Lord K. thought his conduct blameless ♦ * * But if we should 
find the attention of -any general officer so absorbed in a system ofphmder, as to 
leave him no leisure for fighting, perhaps we might not think hun so entirely blame- 
less."— Gordon, Hist., p. 239, 40, not0. 



THE TEAJL OF THE MENAPII. 127 

Kingsboroiigli, the day after his liberation, went to 
Mr. Giogan's house and '■ tooh out of the stable two 
coach horses to sell." 

" Ah poor Grogan, you die an innocent man," said 
Harvey meeting the former in the jail-yard. Their 
heads were cut olf ; and one placed at each side of 
Keugh's. 

The trail of many — oh how many of these Menapii 
can no farther be tracked than this crimson bridge- 
and running water. 

The royalists hold a carnival of blood ! 

Among the crowd immolated were Oolclough, 
Prendergast, who had accepted a civil office under 
the insurgents ; John Hay, who had been a lieuten- 
ant in Dillon's regiment in the Irish Brigade in 
France, and upon whom was found a letter from 
Perry of Inch dated from the Vinegar Hill camp 
demanding his attendance there ; and others more 
famous. Of the latter were two brave hearts- -John 
Kelly of Kill an and Esmonde Kyan. 

It will be remembered that Kelly was dangerously 
wounded at the battle of New lioss. For medical aid 
he was conveyed to Wexford. His solicitude for the 
fate of the struggle — his inability to participate in it, 
and the pangs of illness had greatly weakened and re- 
duced him. In this state he lay coniined to bed. But 
he was not forgotten. Tlie Three Rock Mountain and 
Hoss were too scornfully visible to royalist eyes. He 
was dragged from his bed, carried through a trial 
and drawn on a car to the bridge. Well may the 
autliorities yell — w^ell may the Orange furies shout. 



128 'ninety-eight and 'fokty-eight. 

Thej have time to do it now. The young hero of 
twenty-five summers is bent into the winter of old 
age in beating yon. Shout on. These shouts 
remove the pallor of the grave fi-om about his heart 
and flush it into ripeness again. The more extrava- 
gant yonr display the greater must be the reason you 
have for it. It comforts him— he feels you esteem 
him a great enemy. It is something to die for — the 
hatred of the foes of one's country ! 

He is dead. 

But yet the authorities are not safe, while yet his 
features in all the ghastly nobility of patriot death 
stare them in the face. He was decapitated, his 
body treated as those of all the others were, and his 
head — made a football and kicked through the streets 
amid the jests and vociferations of the mercenaries 
who crowded the town. 

But the more they found he was dead the more 
life come to them. They rolled the head along until 
they reached the residence of the dear sister who 
had devoted herself to the bedside of that beloved 
brother ; and there, before her window, resumed the 
game of football, and when tired flung it into the air 
with wild and demon exultations. It was ultimately, 
according to sentence, placed above Keugh's at the 
court-house. 

And it was in the last days of the eighteenth cen- 
tury of Christianity that such things came to pass ! 

Up in the future, and not very far either, stern 
skeptics and ideal religionists, taking up such acts 
from the history of a " civilized country," the ruler of 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPi'I, ' 129 

which was styled "Defender of the Faith''' may 
argue that Christ had not come ; had neither lived on 
earth, nor taught, nor died — that the years counted 
under the head " A. D." were delusions — Homeric and 
Ossianic epics, brilliant witli blood ; that our grand- 
fathers were in the savage darkness and chaotic 
frenzies of some transition state, in which the light 
broke in enough to let us see its horrors— in wdiicli 
there was sufficient — and barely sufficient civilization 
to give a pleasant variety to barbarism by making 
it keener with improvement — Setting it to the air « of 
English " Progress." 

But then — some will say — that w^as the age of Pitt 
and Fox — of Junius and Doctor Johnson, of great 
orators and mighty moralists ! and so forth. It was 
the age of "Wasliington and Jefferson, too ! 

Which will make the former remember that the 
very same " authorities " who kicked the Irish 
" rebel's " head through the streets in '98, offered, a 
few years before, premiums for the scalps of Ameri- 
can " rebels " — so much a package for the scalps of 
their helpless infants, and more hopelessly helpless 
old men, and of women, the life and succor and com- 
fort of both. He will then be certain that a doubt 
of the Christianity and civilization of sucli " autho- 
rities" should, if it does not, exist. 

But we are in the past, and on this old bridge 
again. 

And Esmonde Kyan, who was there on the 20th 
of June as a saviour, is there again now — a corpse 

Being wounded at the battle of Arklow, and to 

a* 



130 



which wound the loss of the day is attributed, Kjan 
was brought to Wexford, like Kellj, for surgical 
assistance. Hearing of the massacres under Dixon 
on the 20tli, he sprang, gaiuing strength from his 
liumanitj, from his sick-bed — tottei'ed to the bridge, 
and with peculiar intrepidity succeeded in saving the 
lives of many. 

But the merciful received no mere v. 

In a treaty made between the insurgent Generals 
Fitzgerald and Aylmer and General Dundas, provi- 
sions were entered into for Kyan's safety, and per- 
mission for exile out of Ireland guaranteed. In the 
face of this, and relying upon its truth, he was arrest- 
ed, tried, convicted and executed the next day. 
Vainly he referred to the ti-eaty. Yainlj he asked 
for time. 

Time? — it might have saved him; and he was 
arrested not to be saved — but to be hanged. 

The trail of many — oh, how very many of the 
"Wexford men, can be tracked througli burning home- 
steads, and pillaged villages, and mustering groups, 
and sullen crowds, and mountain camps, and wild 
charges, and shattered ranks, and promiscuous 
retreats, and impromptu victories, and broken trea- 
ties to this old bridge — those pikedieads on the court- 
house — the trackless current of the Slaney? 

How many cannot be tracked further than this 
crimson bridge. We cannot pass it. Seeking an 
end to the trail of these Menapii, we are at it. It 
ends in blood. 

While we look about inquiringly on that bridge, 



THE TRA.il of the MENAPII. 181 

oiir very feet patter in the blood of patriots, and we 
carry it with ns through the streets, and through the 
work], and into every house, as a legacy of misfor- 
tune. And strangei's who see the bloody marks upon 
us, and hear the story of their being, arise above 
the prescribed limits of their nationalities to a 
passionate pallor, and whisperingly question us of 
" Yengeance ?" 

Let us take refuge in the open air, for though 
"the ashes of the just smell sweet and blossom in 
the dust," still this blood, from the nature of the 
sacrifice, will remain stagnant and quivering before 
us. 

There are others of the Menapii on the roads and 
mountains — in retreat it may be, but they have arms 
in their hands. Let us on their trail. 

After Vinegar Hill the various detachments of the 
king's troops, now having comparatively a "fair field," 
continued to burn and pillage in all directions. They 
even grew valiant over the dead bodies of their 
foes. Mr. Edward Hay, one of the deputies from 
Wexford to General Lake, describes the state of the 
country on his retuin. "Captain O^Hea (a former 
prisoner of the insurgents) and I," he writes, " were 
then led to the head of the army by a general officer, 
and we set oflf with all expedition, to avoid as much 
as possible the horrid spectacle of the dead bodies of 
men and w^omen strewed along the roads and over 
the adjacent fields ; some bearing marks of the most 
savage and indecent cruelty ; some with their bowels 
ripped open, and others with their brains dashed out 



132 



— situations whicii they did not at all exhibit the day 
before, when I saw them lying dead on my way to 
Enniscorthy." 

Shall we never get clear of this trail of blood? 

On the night of the 21st June, the insurgents who 
had gathered in Wexford, with the remains of the 
forlorn hope which had escaped from Yinegar Hill, 
were in a state of confusion almost amounting to dis- 
may. The thunders that had broken in upon them 
with the dawn still rolled about them. The inhabi- 
tants had delivered up the town to General Moore's 
division ; Lord Kingsborough was made governor ; 
the grand army was on its march ; the insurgents' 
camps were broken into remnants, all of which, dis- 
appointed, furious, and in confusion, were in or about 
the town, eagerly, and by look, gesture, and word 
inquiring what was to be done ? 

The chiefs met. 

Their hopes have not sunk behind Yinegar Hill. 
As it, their faith is immovable and unshaken. 

The insurgents are divided into two bodies. Those 
living to the north and northeast of the Slaney, 
crossed Wexford Bridge, commanded by Edward 
Fitzgerald, Edward Koche, Garret Byrne, Esmonde 
Kyan, and others. The other division under the three 
priests, Boche, Murphy, and Kearns, directed their 
steps into the barony of Bargy, and encamped that 
night at Sleedagh, about five miles from the fiited 
town. 

We shall follow the trail of the latter division. 

Kearns, suffering from wounds received the day 



THE TEAIL OF THE MENAPII. 



133 



previous, in Lis gallant defence of Euniscorthy, was 
unable to bear the fatigue, and took shelter in a far- 
mer's house. 

At a council held that night, Roche being duped 
by 'Uhe terms," proposed to surrender. He consi- 
dered that they could offer no determined resistance. 
Murphy had no reliance on their terms in the first 
place ; and, in the second, would make no tenns. 
As for himself he cried, " If he stood alone, he would 
never willingly surrender to them." ' Mnrphy had 
borne the torch from Boolavoo:ue to Sleedao^h. He 
had been with the peasantry from the hill of Oulart 
to Yinegar Hill. He had many attached partisans ; 
and his declaration was echoed throughout the divi- 
sion. They would not willingly surrender ! 

Roche went to Wexford to receive his " terms." 
We have seen how he o^ot them — from the hancr- 
man. 

Murphy, resolving to make for the County Carlow, 
and through it, Kilkenny, in hopes of commencing a 
fresh campaign there, pushed on, the next day, 
through Scollagh Gap, a pass in the great ridge of 
Mount Leinster, wliicli divides Wexford and Carlow. 
Driving before bini a body of troops, placed there 
to protect the Pass, he burned the village of Killed- 
mond, on the Carlow side of the Gap, and continued 
his march to the town of Goresbridge, on the river 
Barrow, in Kilkenny, where he arrived on the morn- 
ing of the 23d. A body of the Fourth Dragoon 
Guards and Wexford Militia took position on the 
bridge to oppose the insurgents; but they were 



1^4 ^NINETY EIGHT AND VoKTY-EIGHT. 

quickly forced, driven back into the village, and 
nearly all either killed, wounded, or taken prisoners.^ 
Major-General Sir Charles iVsgill, who, with a thou- 
sand men, was on the march to seize this post, arrived 
too late ; the insurgents having, after tlieir success, 
made a rapid movement to the Kidge of Leinster, 
where they rested in good spirits that night. 

On the next morning tliey proceeded towards 
Castlecomer, defeated and chased into it, with con- 
siderable loss, a party of loyalists, and commenced 
a furious assault on the town. The chief resistance 
was offered from a fortified house at the foot of the 
bridge ; and upon which the insurgents wasted much 
good time. The town was set on lire, of whicli con- 
flagration each party accuses the other, f The 
smoke prevented the insurgents from discerning the 
nature of the ibrce opposed to them ; and also per- 
mitted Sir Charles Asgill, wlio iiad followed them, to 
approach without their knowledge. His arrival was 
announced by his artillery, which raked the streets 
and houses, and suggested a retreat to the insurgents, 
which they made, leaving behind them the prisoners 
taken at Goresbridge. 

The royalists and many inhabitants imitated the 
insurgent example and also retreated, in an opposite 
direction, their general thinking the same "prudent." 

The insurgents of course immediately returned, 
took possession of, and sacked the town. 

The insurgents are again on the hills, but they are 

♦ Cloney,p. 82. 

t Gordon, Hist., p. 202; Hay, p. 808. 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPII. 135 

disappointed. Tlie country throngli whicli they pass- 
ed did not rise ; they liad some victories to be sure, 
but their amnnition was running out. It was resolved 
to go back to the County Wexford: rebel hearts 
were plenty there as the blossoms on the furze ; and 
accordingly on the 25th they retraced their steps to 
Goresbridge and bivouacked that night on Kilcom- 
ney HilL 

Discomfited and overpowered by fatigue, want of 
regular food and necessary raiment, tiieir minds as 
well as their bodies were encircled with mist. They 
did not well know what to do; neither could they see 
the danger that menaced them on the following 
morning as a heavy depressing haze hung over the 
hill. 

While in this position of mind and body, they 
were suddenly aroused by a severe discharge of 
cannon pouring on one side of the bivouack. They 
moved to the opposite side ; another volley thoroughly 
shook them up. 

Asgill with twelve hundred men, and Major 
Mathews with live hundred were upon them. 

The struggle continued for an hour. The insur- 
gents had no resource save in flight, and in the brave 
exertions of tlieir horsemen, who rallied, and to some 
extent covered the retreat of their comrades. But 
for this they must have been entirely cut oflP. As it 
was, the slaughter was great. 

Being disappointed in not butchering the complete 
body of the Wexford men, Asgill fell upon the district, 
and ravaged and murdered indiscriminately. Over 



136 'kINETY-EIGHT and VoKTY-EIGnT. 

one hundred and fifty persons in the neighborhood 
of Kilcomney were put to the sword. Gordon sajs 
— " The great part of the slain were inhabitants of 
the connty wliich had unfortunately become the 
scene of action, who had not joined the rebels nor 
left their houses ; and that great part of the plunder 
was taken from people of the same description." ^ 

The insurgents pursued their way to ScoUagh Gap, 
" a body of the king's cavalry hanging on their rear, 
but which kept at a respectful distance." At the 
Gap the broken Wexfordians were pressed by some 
troops ; and while many sought to escape up the 
mountains, two brave fellows taking shelter under 
cover of a rock, opened 11 re on the enemy, defended 
the pass, and enabled maiiy of their comrades to 
achieve their retreat. Those two men — James Cody 
of Ballindaggin and Michael Lacy of Ballyboggin, 
whose names deserve to be recorded — thus placed, 
kept up a quick and unerring fire on the advancing 
dragoons until the death of over a dozen of them 
effected the temporarj- safety of the chief part of the 
insurgents. 

About two miles from Scollagh, Father Murphy and 
a single follower, Gallagher, sought rest after the har- 
assment of the morning. Being somewliat refreshed, 
tliey wended their weary steps towards Tullow, where 
they fell into the hands of the enemy and were hang- 
ed " without delay or ceremony." 



♦Gordon, Elst., p. 205. He adds, "The behaylor of the army in other places 
renders thi^ account very probable." 



TTIE TRAIL OF THE MENAPIT. 13? 

Tljns one of tho bivands fi'om Boolavogue has burn- 
ed out at Tullow. 

Some of the insurgents took to the mountains of 
Leinster and Blackstairs, where thej were either 
killed or dispersed. Some sought the woods of Kil- 
laughran ; others the woods about Ferns, where 
death met them still resisting but unavailingly so ; 
while a considerable number sought out in "W' icklow 
the other division of the Wexford men which had 
gone north on the night of the 21st. 

"What became of that division ? We are still on 
the trail of the modern Menapii. 

On the 22nd a party of them under Anthony Perry 
hearing that some Gorey loyalists were scouring the 
country for " rebels " proceeded to that town, and 
hunted the troops from it with considerable sLaugh- 
ter; after Avhicli they proceeded to the Whiteheaps 
in the County Wicklow. 

The trail of this division, may be discovered 
through the lead-mines, to Monaseed, to Donard, to 
Glanmullen, to Aughrim, to Blessington, to Bally- 
manus — where uniting with the men under Garret 
Byrne they encamped. On the morning of the 25th 
by five o'clock they were before Ilacketstown. 

The king's troops commenced the attack, but after a 
few volleys wei-e forced to retreat, in which Captain 
Hardy was killed. They fled to the barracks, while 
the insurgents were wading the river to invest the 
place on all sides. After an obstinate attempt, and 
gallant defence of nine hours, the insurgents retreated, 



138 



carrying off their wounded and all the cattle in the 
town to Blessingion.* 

Fitzgerald and Byrne now directed their forces 
towards Carnew, and on the road near it, met and sur- 
rounded a party of cav^alry — among whom were tlie 
ancient Britons long notorious for their excesses — 
which was sent as part of a defence for the town. The 
troops were totally defeated witli a loss of overeiglitj, 
including two officers, the insurgents not having lost 
one man. 

Thev were foiled however in their designs on 
Carnew^, the fugitive horsemen having sounded the 
alarm. 

On the 2nd of July, v/hile moving towards Shille- 
lagh they were pursued by the troops, cavalry and 
infantry. The insurgents suddenly stopped, quickly 
retired up Ballyrahn Hill, from which as the troops 
advanced, they poured down with such velocity and 
violence as to completely shock them, killing seventy 
privates and two officers of the infantry. Some of 
the trooi)S retreated to a house at the foot of the hill, 
and after standing a siege repulsed the insurgents. 
A neighboring house, having been fired by the latter, 



♦ " In the midst of so atrocious a warfare, many instances occm-red of respectful 
treatment of the fair sex, one of which had place in thii» attack. The wife and two 
adult daughters of Lieutenant Chamney, and the wife of Captain Hanly, who had 
early in the action fallen into the hands of the assailants, were, by the influence of 
Perry, and another chief, named McMahon, conveyed to a place of safety, and pro- 
tected from insult. The wives of the rebel couin\anders, Perry and Byrne, were at 
the same time in the han Is of the loyalists, and as must naturally be supposed,** 
under tte circumstance " were treated w^th courtesy."— Gordon > Hist., p. 207. 



fliK TRAIL OF THE MENAPII. IS^ 

gave the soldiers an opportunity — as it was night — 
to take aim at the "rebels," who were unprotected. 

We next are on the trail at the foot of the Croofhan 
Mountains, where, on tlie ith, at night, they are 
marching to Wicklow Gap. In the morning they 
were met by the army under Sir James Duff, and 
forced to face towards Gorey. 

But the elements as well as the English were against 
them. A dense fog, not to count four powerful 
detachments, surrounded them. At twenty yards 
nothing was visible but a grey eternity. Finding 
themselves in this position, and unable to withstand 
a battle, they broke through the pursuing cavalry of 
Sir James Duff's army, of whom they slew about 
eighty ; and moved with great celerity in the direc- 
tion of Carnew."^ 

But they were dissatisfied with their -partial suc- 
cesses and discomfitures of late, and from one extreme 
took refuge and ho[)e by leaping into another. They 
resolved to await the approach of the king's troops, 
whatever their number, and fight them, although 
their own forces were considerably lessened. 

Probably the poor fellows — harassed, hunted, and 
fatigued, as they were — ambitioned to fight one 
glorious battle ; and fighting, die happy, like their 
conn-ades at New Roes, 

There was no past to fall back upon, out of which 
they might, if they were so willing, build quiet 
homes. The future was like the fogs at Kilconmey 

♦ Hay's ffistory. 



1-iO ^NINETY-EIGHT AND 

and AVicklow Gap — impenetrable or full of disasters, 
according to the capacity of the mind that groped 
into it. 

What could they do but die ? 

And then to die nobly — to die as became them — to 
die up to their character — on the necks of the foe, 
and in no loving embrace — that was the point. 

They awaited the troops at Ballygnllen. 

A close and bitter fight took pUice, which lasted 
an hour and a half. The insurgents fought with 
desperate resolution. They repulsed the cavalry, and 
drove the artillerymen three times from their cannon. 
They wooed death in the most valorous mood, but 
they could not be killed. Eeinforcements of the 
army pouring in from every side, they quitted the 
field in different directions, in much better spirits 
than before the fight commenced, and having an 
agreement to meet again on Cori'igrue Hill. 

They could not be killed fighting, and to be but- 
chered was not their ambition. 

They met at Corrigrue. And ended the warfare 
in the County of Wexford. 

But the trail of the Menapii ends not here. 

William Aylmer at the head of a body of Kildarc 
insurgents was still in the field and pursuing a system' 
of certainly brilliant, if not decidedly eflective, 
guerilla warfare. Although he w^as unprovided with 
artillery, and laboring under a great disadvantage 
in the nature of the country in which his fortunes 
were thrown, it being flat, still the velocity of his 
movements, and the decision with which he executed 



THE TEAIL OF THE MENAPII. 141 

his jDlans, had made him not only formidable, but 
destructive to his enemies. At night on the extended 
plains of Kildare, in the morning twenty miles in 
advance, cutting off the supplies of the enemy, 
storming their posts, or driving back the advance of 
their army in full march to lay waste some devoted 
village or town ; always on the alert, indefatigable in 
his pursuits, and exhaustless in his enterprise, his 
military character seemed a perfect copy of the 
" great Dundee." * 

It was but natural that the remnant of Wexford 
men still intent on keeping the field, should be 
attracted towards the Kildare chief. 

Edward Fitzgerald with his Wexford men, and 
Garret Byrne with the Wicklow insurgents marched 
into Kildare and formed a coalition at Prosperous, 
whence they moved to Clonard on the Boyne, tw^enty- 
five miles west of Dublin ; with the intention of 
pushing on to Athlone and arousing the west country. 

At Clonard they suffered a severe repulse on the 
11th of July. The defenders of the place, with great 
determination, lield out until the arrival of reinforce- 
ments from Kinnegad and Mullingar, when the insur- 
gents abandoned the assault and their designs on 
Athlone. The " fierce Wexfordians " deemino^ their 
associates less hardy and warlike than themselves, 
separated from them after the failure of this enter- 
prise. 

The modern Menapii — a flying battalion— -contin- 

• Charles Hamilton Teeling ; Personal Narraliye of the Rebellion, p. 1T7. 



142 NINETY-EIGHT AND 

Tied to make incursions into, and leave a trail of blood 
and flame tlirougli the counties of Kildare, Meath, 
Lou til and Dublin. Their fortune was various, their 
skirmishes with the army incessant. 

They plundered Carbery in Kildare ; and revelled 
in Lord Harberton's house : sped to Johnstow^n on the 
morning of the 12th July, thence by the Nineteen- 
mile house into the County Meath. They were over- 
taken here by Colonel Gougli and routed. 

Anthony Perry and Father Moses Kearns attempt- 
ing to push on to the Boyne were captured and exe- 
cuted in Edenderry. 

Still the scaffold warns the follower on the trail of 
the Menapii to go no farther. 

Perry was a refined and well-informed gentleman ; 
having been tortured, and his house sacked by the 
yeomen, he had to fly for his life, disguised himself 
as a beggar and threw himself into the insurgent 
cause. Driven to defence he was hanged for defend- 
ing himself. 

Kearns on the authority of Cloney was brave, 
generous and humane. Gordon pictures him as a 
man of extraordinary stature, strength and ferocity. 
Another accounf^ which if reliable, the writer may 
truly term '* somewhat extraordinary." Kearns is 
represented as having been actually hanged in Paris, 
during the ascendency of ]tobespierre; but being a 
large, heavy man, the lamp-iron from which he was 
suspended, gave way, till his toes reached the ground. 

♦ See the po-called " Impartial Narrative " compiled by J. Jones, before cited. 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPH. 14:3 

In this state he was cut clown by a physician, who 
had known him, brought him to his house, and under 
whose care he recovered. He escaped into Ireland, 
became a curate in Clonard, and was looked upon 
by the authorities as a serviceable acquisition, incon- 
sequence of tlie torture he had suffered from French 
*' democracy " and fury. He, however, was soon in 
Wexford, a member of the committee for the protec- 
tion of the town, and afterwards led the insurgents 
in their gallant defence of Enniscortliy. While a 
prisoner he was " silent and sulky " and could not be 
forced to give any information as to the state or 
numbers of the insurgents. 

Unfortunate in Meath, the Wexford insurgents 
made a rapid march to the Boyne, near Duleek, and 
crossed into tlie County Louth. Here they were 
hunted vigorously and vigilantly. On the 14th they 
turned on tlieir pursuers, Major General Wemys and 
Brigadier General Meyrick with two divisions of the 
army, and " made a desperate stand between Ardee 
and the Boyne." ^ The great want of the insurgents 
— artillery — and the reinforcements of the king's 
troops defeated them. They sought refuge and 
defence in a bog whither the army could not follow. 

In the niglit a small portion left, and under many 
adventurous circumstances, and by many circuitous 
routes sought their homes. 

The remainder re-crossed the Boyne and actually 
were on the straight road to Dublin, within about 

* Gordon, Hist., p. 215. 



144 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

eight miles of it northward, when tliey w^ere inter 
cepted by a strong body of horse and foot at Bally 
boghill, near Swords, and finally dispersed. 

They did not collect again. 

Fitzgerald and Aylnier with a small body that had 
remained with them, brought the govei'nment to terms. 
They neo^otiated with General Diindas and effected a 
treaty guaranteeing safety and exile. Garret Byrne 
secured the same terms from General Moore : as did 
Edward Koche and John Devereux with Gen. Hunter. 

The mountains of Wicklow became the asylum for 
the more desperate of the insurgent fugitives, and 
large bodies, under Holt and Hacket, continued to 
hold their own. " That county " (Wicklow^), says 
Musgrave, ''fi'om the strong posts and fastnesses 
which its steep, craggy mountains and deep defiles 
afford, was the last place in Ireland in which rebellion 
was subdued in the reigns of Elizabeth and Charles I. 
and King William " — he should have added and King 
George. Hacket was killed near Arklow. Holt 
brought the government to terms of expatriation. 

Garret Byrne, of Ballymanns, was a gentleman of 
estate and education, 'manly, brave, and sincere, and 
one of that great Wicklow clan — ever ready and ripe 
for "rebellion." 

Fitzgerald, when he had taken his stand decisively 
with the insurgents, proved himself one of the ablest 
of the leaders. Courageous in the field, mercy was 
ever the uppermost thought when the victor. He w^as 
indefatigable in restraining the sectional hatreds of 
some of the men under him, and strove diligently 



THE TEAIL OF THE MENAPII. liS 

and nobly to prove that it was not a war of religious 
words and massacres, but of Independence, they were 
engaged in. Of considerable culture and keen 
natural powers, he truly estimated the nature of the 
persons at the head of the Irish government, and 
could not be seduced into any hasty terms, until he 
was enabled to force from them what they would not 
give, if he yet had not arms in his hands. 

After spending some time at the Hot Wells, Bi-istol, 
for the recovery of their health, Fitzgerald and 
Byi-ne, in the end of March, 1799, were arrested, 
kept some time in custody, and finally allowed to 
proceed to Hamburgh, where the former ended his 
days. Byrne died in Bath. 

Of Aylmer, so brave, vigilant, and decisive, no 
doubt the reader is anxious to know something more. 
Lord Cloncurry gives a sketch of his romantic his- 
tory, which — as the scope of my work prevents any 
peculiar individual detail on the one liand, and .as less 
cannot be said with justice on the other — I adopt. 
" He belonged to an ancient and respectable family 
in Kildare. In the year 1Y96, William Aylmer was 
a lieutenant in the Kildare Militia, and was quartered 
with his regiment in the camp at Loughlinstown, near 
Bray, to which I was in the habit of going, to dine 
with the Duke of Leinster, then colonel of the reo-i- 
ment, and, also, to visit General Crosbie, the chief in 
command. Upon one of those occasions I was accom- 
panied by Mr. Sampson, who was at that time in tlie 
full blossom of his United Irish sins; and there Ayl- 
mer and Sampson became acquainted, and an inti- 

T 



146 



macy was begun, which ended in a full conversion of 
the former to the political opinions of his new friend. 
On the occasion alluded to, Sampson illustrated the 
reckless character of his zeal by privately scattering 
political tracts and patriotic songs among the huts, 
as he walked through the camp after dinner. IS'ever- 
theless, he was able to influence Aylmer, who, in the 
course of a year afterwards, was promoted from his 
lieutenancy in the royal militia, to a general com- 
mand in the rebel army. In that position he main- 
tained a struggle for a considerable time in the 
County of Kildare, and, finally, fought the battle of 
Ovidstown with so much skill as to be able to make 
a capitulation with the king's troops, under the terms 
of which his life was spared. His career at the liead 
of his little army, during this campaign, was a hijou 
of /alor and enterprise ; but was chiefly distinguished 
in the estimation of the country people, by the chi- 
valrous generosity witli which, when in great distress 
for provisions, lie spared the smaller farmers, but 
levied his forced contributions, with an unsparing 
hand, upon the herds, and flocks, and granaries of 
his own father. After some time, Aylmer was 
allowed to leave the country ; and I observe among 
the Castlereagh j^^^pei's, a letter complaining of his 
being permitted to be at large about the streets of 
London. Eventually he entered the Austrian service, 
in which he distinguished liimself so much, tliat he 
was appointed to command the escort that attended 
Maria Louisa, on lier return from Paris to Vienna, 
after the fall of Napoleon, AVhen the allied sove- 



THE TRAIL OF THE MENAPII. 14:7 

reigns visited Loiulonj in 1814, Ajlmer accoinpaiiied 
the Emperor of Austria, and, upon the request of the 
Prince Regent, he was selected and left in England 
to teach the sword exercise to the Britisli army. His 
immediate pnpils were the 10th Dragoons; and he 
conducted himself so satisfactorily in liis task, that he 
received a free pardon, and was presented with a 
handsome sword by the prince. After this i^ylmer 
settled in his native country, where his constitutional 
activity led him into a quarrel with the Dnke of 
Leinster's gamekeepers, &c., ifec. The jDui'suit of 
hares and partridge, however, soon ceased to interest 
Aylmer's stirring mind, and lie joined General 
Devereux in heading an expedition of Irish sympa- 
thizers, designed to aid the South American pati'iots, 
then in the beginning of their struggle under Bolivar. 
He fought, as I have heard, bravely at the battle of 
Rio de la Hache, where he received a wound that 
caused his death, shortly afterwards, at Jamaica, 
whither he and several others were conveyed in a 
small vessel, during the heats of a tropical sum- 
mer."^ 

Thus have we followed the trail of the Menapii 
through bastinado and bivouac, through victory and 
defeat, to the scalfold and into exile. Hardy natures 
and brave hearts! Enduring much and fighting 
much : almost unarmed and undisciplined they 
taught a lesson to their enemies, wdiich the assiduous 
labors of their depredators since, have not succeeded 
in flinging into obscurity. 

* Cloncurry's Personal Recollections, &c., p. 140, et seq. 



148 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

They proved that pikes and principles can at times 
match arrogance and artilleiy — that if they did not 
absohitely succeed themselves — they terrified their 
enemies into the vilest subterfno-es for their demoli- 
tion. They foi'ced tliem into conventions whicli tliey 
broke, and into history wliich they disgrace. 

The trail of the Menapii. 

The scaffolds of Wexford, Enniscorthy, Edenderry, 
Tnllow. The fio'hts from Onlart to Vine^^ar Hill — to 
Ballyboghill. The high-ways and by-ways of great 
European cities ; the battle-fields of Austria, France, 
Spain, and England. In the prison and the palace — • 
in native outlawry, and exiled glory — there the trail 
of the modern Menapii may be found. 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN 



THE UXITKD IRISHMEN. 



151 



THE UNITED IKISHMEN. 

Doctor Madden, in a table made to exhibit the 
religion professed by the leading members of the 
United Irish Society, or persons suspected of so 
being, gives the following list of names :'^ 



PROTESTANTS. 

tThomas A. Emmett, Bar. 
tArtliur O'Connor, " 
tRoger O'Connor. " 
*tThomas Russell, 
tJohn Chambers, 
tMatthew Dowling, 
fEdward Hudson, 
tHugh Wilson, 
tWilliam Dowdall, 
tRobert Hunter, 
Hon. Simon Butler, Bar. 
A. H. Rowan, 



PRESBYTERIANS. 

tWilliam Tennant, M. D. 

tRobert Slmins, 
tSamuel Wilson, 
tGeorge Cumming, 
t Joseph Cuthbert, 
tRev. W. Steele Dickson, 



William Drennan, M. D. 
♦William Orr, 



CATHOLIUS. 

tW. J. M'Nevin, M, D. 
tJohn Sweeny, 
t Joseph M'Cormlck, 
tJohn Sweetman, 



Peter Finerty, 
*William Michael Byrne, 



* See Appendix No. IV., vol. ii., Madden's " Lives and Times of the United 
Irishmen." The indefatigable energy exliibited by Dr. Madden is beyond all praise, 
in hunting up and publishing such an amount of matericUs for a history of the men 
and times indicated by the title. There is a great accumulation of facts, documents, 
and coeval narratives compiled ; but the labor of reading them is only less than that 
expended in collecting the same. But for the intrinsic interest of the bare facts, the 
manner of the compilation would confound and deter even an industrious histori- 
cal student from their perusal. All must be, as we decidedly are, thankful, how- 
ever, for the great industry and vi^lance of the Doctor, so far as his compilation 
goes. As to his political opinions, we must take exception; also, to the ambiguity 
which characterizes too many of his reflective paragi-aplis 

In Madden's list, those marked thus (t) were state prisoners in Fort George, Scot- 
land. Those marked with an asterisk (*) were hanged. 



152 



^NINETY-EIGHT AND 'FORTY-EIGtiT. 



PROTESTANTS. 

James Napper Tandy, 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
*Henry Sheares, 
♦John Sheares, 
Oliver Bond, 
*B. B. Harvey, 
♦Leonard M'Nally, Bar. 

John Russell, 
♦Anthony Perry, 
*T. W. Tone, Bar. 
♦Bartholomew Tone, 
Thomas Wright, 
Wm. Livingston Webb, 
William Hamilton, 
Matthew Bowling, Att'y? 
Richard Kirwan, 
James Reynolds, M. D. 
Deane Swift, Bar. 
♦Matthew Keugh, 
Thomas Corbett, 
William Corbett, 
WiUiam Weir, 
John Allen, 
Thomas Bacon, 
Robert Emmett, 
Joseph Holt. 



PRESBYTERIANS. 

♦Samuel Orr, 
Wm. Putnam M'Cabe, 
♦Henry Monroe. 
♦James Dickey, Att'y, 
Henry Haslett, 
William Sampson, Bar. 
♦Henry Joy M'Cracken, 

William Sinclair, 
J. Sinclair, 
Robert M'Gee, M. D. 
Israel Milliken, 
Gilbert M'llvrain, jun. 
Robert Byers, 
♦Henry Byers, 
S. Kennedy, 
Robert Hunter, 
Robert Orr, 
Hugh Grimes, 
WiUiam Kean, 
James Burnside, 
James Greer, 
Rowley Osborne, 
Mr. Turner, 
William Simms, 
John Rabb, 
James Hope. 



CATHOLICS. 

♦John M'Cann, 
♦J. Esmond, M. D. 
William Lawless, 
E.lward John Lewins, 
♦William Byrne, 
♦Walter Devereux, 
John Devereux (the Geo. 

Devereux). 
Garret Byrne, 
♦Esmond Kyan, 
Charles Teeling, 
Bartholomew Teeling, 
Richard M'Cormick, 
Thomas Doorley. 
♦Felix Rourke, 
Bernard Mahon, 
John Sweetman, 
E. Fitzgerald (AVexford), 
William Aylmer, 
♦S. Barrett, 
Ferdinand O'Donnell, 
♦Col. O'Doude, 
♦John Kelly, 
Thomas Cloney, 
♦John Clinch, 
James Farrell, 
Michael Dwyer. 



The clergy who were implicated, or accused of be- 
ing concerned in the Rebellion, were the following: 



PRESBYTERIANS. 

♦Rev. Mr. Warwick, 
Rev. W. Steele Dickson, 
♦Rev. William Porter, 
Rev. Mr. Barber, 
Rev. Mr, Mahon, 
Rev, Mr. Birch, 
Rev. Mr. Ward, 
Rev. Mr, Smith, 
Rev. Mr. Sinclair, 
♦Rev. Mr. Stevelly, 
Rev. Mr. M'Neill, 
Rev. Mr. Simpson. 



CATHOLICS. 

*Rev. Moses Kearns, 
♦Rev. John Murphy, 
Rev. Michael Murphy, 
Rev. Mr. Kavanagh, 
♦Rev. Mr. Redmond, 
Rev. Mr. Stafford, 
♦Rev. P. Roche, 
Rev. H. O'Keon, 
♦Rev. Mr. Prendergast, 
Rev. Mr. Harrold, 
♦Rev. J. Quigley, 
Rev. Dennis Taalfe. 



THE UNITED iElSIIMEN. l53 



In addition to this very full list,^ I must add the 
following names, which have been overlooked. 

Names of delegates (with others men- Names (not mentioned by Madden) in a 

tioned above) frcm various United list of rebel officers of Wexford, Wiok- 

Irish Societies, arrested at Oliver low, and Kildare, found in Governor 

Bond's, on the 12th March, 1798, Keugh's house by General Lake. 

Peter Ivers, Oarlow, Edward Roche, 

Lawrence Grififen, do. Nicholas Dixon, 

Lawrence Kelly, Queen's County, Martin Myrna, 

Peter Bannan, do. Nicholas Murphy, 

Thomas Reynolds, Kilkenny, "William Carton, 

Christopher Martin, Meath, John Rossiter, 

Patrick Devine, County of DubRn, Denis Doyle, 

James Rose, Dublin City, John Doyle, 

John Lynch, do. John Tiffin, 

Thomas Trenor, do. Martin Quinn, 

Edward Synnot, 
Philip Murphy, 
Patrick Redmond, 

Kelly, 

Reynolds. 

Thomas Synnott. A chief at Enniscorthy, 28th May. 

Francis Jordan. Treasurer of the U. I. S. of Antrim. 

Alexander Lawry, do. do. do. Down. 

John Magennis. 

Thomas Braughall. 

John Henry Colclough. Hanged. 

Patrick Prendergast. do. 



♦ " The preceding list," says Dr. Madden, " of the names of the leaders of the United 
Irishmen, includes those of the actors in the rebellion, as well as those of the origina- 
tors and organizers of it ; but if we separate the one from the other, and enumerate 
the organizing leaders, we shall find that the Protestant and Presbyterian members, 
when compared with the Roman Catholic members, are in the proportion of fouv to 
one. There never was a greater mistake than to call this struggle a Popish rebellion ; 
the movement was pre-eminently a Protestant one." Whilst the disabilities of the Ca- 
tholics gave an early and fundamental basis of operations for the reform and revolu- 
tionary leaders, as I have indicated in my view of Tone, the junction of the Presby- 
terians of the North, and the spreading faith of the United Irish Society, linked all 
on national grounds. It was only in Wexford, where the society did not, until they 
had been sometime in arms, thrive, that the Catholics, as such, rose to defend them- 
selves and their priests. Yet here, full one half of the chiefs were Protestants — as, 
Harvey, Keugh, Perry, Boxwell, Colclough, etc. 

7* 



154 



Matthew Furlong. Shot on the morning of New Ross. 
Michael Furlong. A chief at Three Roclis and Ross. 
WilUam Barker. do. at Enniscorthy. 

John Boxwell. Killed at New Ross. 
Hon. Valentine Lawless. (Afterwards Lord Cloncurry). 
John Binns. Arrested with O'Connor at Margate. 
Patrick Sutton. 
Robert Meyler. 

Perkins. A Kildare chief, who made terms of expatriation with Gen. Dundas. 

Robert Carty, Wexford. Deputy to General Lake. 

Capt. M'Cance, » 

Capt. Townsheud. \ ^°^^'" Monroe at BaUinahinch. 

Anthony M'Cann. On whose history Campbell, having met the refugee In Ham- 

bui-gh, wrote the " Exile of Erin." 
Andrew Farrell. A chief at Prosperous and Timahoe, 24:th May. 
Col. Lumm. 
Col. James Plunkett. 
Edward Molloy, of Rathangan. 
John and Patrick Byrne, of Dundalk. 
Father John Murphy. Shot at Kilcomney — aid-de-camp to the more celebrated 

priest of the same name. 

These are the names of men who acted as leaders, 
or were accounted as such by the people and the 
government, in their localities, during the Eebelliou. 

They may fairly stand at the head of this portion 
of the work as a text, which I am to illustrate with 
such notices of the leading names as will harmonize 
with the design and extent of my work. 

At the time the Society of United Irishmen was 
fonnded, in 1791, it was not the intention of the body, 
whatever may have been the opinions of Tone, Rus- 
sel, Neilson, and others, to create a separation with 
England. To nnite the Catholics and Protestants, 
and thereby create a parliamentary reform, was the 
primitive idea, if not of the founder, certainly of a 
large number of leading men who cooperated with 
him. 

At the close of 1792, an address was issued by the 



THE UNITED TRISHMEN. 155 

society, warning the government against continuing 
its abuses, calling for a reform, and threatening that, 
unless such reform took ])lace, the peoj^le would be 
driven into republicanism. 

In a very able address — written by Dr. Drennan, 
and emanating from a meeting of which he was 
chairman, and Archibald Hamilton Rowan secretary, 
January 27th, 1793 — the society is reviewed, the 
calumnies heaped upon it flung off, and its purposes 
more broadly indicated. As it is the fiishion now, 
with government tools and govei-nment organs in the 
oppressed nations of Europe, but more especially 
with those in Ireland, or out of it, to call the repub- 
licans by every name which is supj^osed to be most 
obnoxious to order, honesty, and justice : so was it in 
the infant days of the United Irish Society. Says the 
address : 

""We have encountered much calumny. We have, among a 
thousand contradictory epithets, been called republicans and 
levellers, as if by artfully making the terms synonymous, their 
nature could be made the same : as if a republican were a level- 
ler, or a leveller a republican." 

Reviewing the state of Parliamentary representa- 
tion, the address continues : 

" We address your understanding— the common sense of the 
common weal— and we ask you, is it not truth that where a peo- 
ple do not participate in the legislature by a delegation of repre- 
sentatives, freely, fairly, and frequently elected, there can be no 
public liberty ? Is it not the fact that in this country there is 



156 'ninety-eight and forty-eight. 

no representative legislature, because the people are not repre- 
sented in the legislature, and have no partnership in the consti- 
tution ? If it be the principle of the constitution, that it is the 
right of every commoner in this realm to have a vote in the 
election of his representative, and that, without such vote, no 
man can be actually represented, it is our wish, in that case, to 
renovate that constitution, and to revive its suspended anima- 
tion, by giving free motion and full play to its vital principle. 
If, on the other hand, the constitution does not fully provide for 
an impartial and adequate representation of all the people — ^if it 
be more exclusive than inclusive in its nature ; if it be a mono- 
poly, a privilege, or a prerogative — in that case, it is our desire 
to alter it ; for, what is the constitution to us, if we are nothing 
to the constitution ? Is the constitution made for you, or you for 
it ? If the people do not constitute a part of it, what is it to 
them more than the ghost of Alfred ; and what are principles 
without practice, which they hear and read, to practice without 
principles, which they see and feel ?" 

In January, 1794, Hamilton Rowan was prosecuted 
for seditious libel, convicted, and sentenced to two 
years' imprisonment, and five hundred pounds fine. 
The "libel" was an address issued, thirteen months 
previous, from the body to the Volunteers of Ireland, 
with the distribution of Avhicli Eowan was charged. 
The trial was postponed, in order to allow the govern- 
ment time to perfect their arrangements in " the new 
plan that had been devised of securing a convic- 
tion ;" * that is, to pack a jury. 

With the progress of civilization, jury-packing has 
also wonderfully advanced. Fifty years' experience 
has added much to the dexterity and coolness with 

* Madden. 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 167 

which this limb — or rather body, and able body, at 
that — of the law is conjured up to subvert, throttle, 
and completely blacken both the eyes of Justice. 
Thirteen months! Why. in '48, it took but as many 
days to arrest, pack a jury, try, and banish Mitchel. 

The address, for the distribution of which Rowan 
was convicted of sedition, called on the Yolunteers to 
arm — that, inasmuch as they had taken up arms " to 
protect their country fj-om foreign enemies, and from 
domestic enemies; for the same purposes, it then 
became necessary that they should resume them." 
On the 4th of May, this same year, the police 
attacked the meeting of the society, dispersed it, and 
seized the papers. 

Simon Butler, Oliver Bond, E"apper Tandy, and 
Rowan had been prosecuted and imprisoned. Coer- 
cive measures were used to break up the freedom of 
speech at the open meetings of the society. It took 
refuge in secrecy. 

The government had torn the mantle from the 
back of the United Irish Society. It tore its " Re- 
form " and ''Emancipation'' garments into rags and 
tatters — and, lo ! the unclothed, naked fact reveals 
itself as — Revolution ! — Republicanism ! 

The society, many timid people withdrawing, com- 
pletely remodelled itself to meet the exigencies of 
the time. A course of highly judicions and effective 
organization on the club and representative system 
was applied to the country; and, by the 10th of May, 
1Y95, it v/as comparatively completed. A military 
organization became the natural offspring of the civil, 



158 



and every tiling was earned out on the electiv^e plan. 
A head Directory in Dublin, with provincial directo- 
ries, governed the Union, and, in the beginning of 
'98, hve hundred thousand men, had taken the test: 
three-fifths of whom were considered available to 
bear arms. 

Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Arthnr O'Connor, 
Edward J. Lewins, and Dr. William McXevin had, 
since May, 1796, been sent as ambassadors to the 
French government, to solicit cooperation and aid. 
In every instance, succor was promised ; but it was 
owing completely to the indefatigable nature, the 
■unwearying determination, and marked abilities of 
Tone that the expeditions I have before enumerated 
were raised. 

With such an outline of the history of the time, to 
make which the men whose names I have taken for a 
text so heroically contributed, we may proceed to un- 
ravel, to a certain extent, the personal details which 
created and emanated from that history and time. 

As one wandering through a pantheon, in which 
are sheltered the effigies of the brave, just, and wise, 
I shall recall to mind those memories which give to 
the marble and the canvas, a significance equal to the 
actual presence of the patriot, poet, or orator, limned 
npon the one or chiselled f.om the other. 

Here are Thomas Russell and Thomas Addis Em- 
mett, who were esteemed by Tone " as the first of his 
friends." They were worthy of that esteem in every 
respect, eminently worthy of the cause they adorned, 
and the affection which rises like an echo in the bo- 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 159 

soms of those wlio have taken their histories to heart. 
Both were noble, chivah-ous, and refined. liussell 
was a great, good man ; Emii/ett a good, great man. 
It miglitbe said that all who met them were refreshed 
bj the amiability and direct honesty of the one, and 
the more stern intelligence of the other. There was, 
if I might use tlie phrase, a manly boyishness about 
Russell that endeared him to his friends, while his 
attainments, like the pillars supporting a beautifully 
constructed and symmetrical dome, prevented the 
least chance of his being regarded as indiscreetly tri- 
vial or unsteadily balanced. To those who did not 
know him he appeared haughty, from the martial car- 
riage and stateliness of his mien ; which, with the 
sensitive delicacy of his nature, made him at times 
reserved. The beauty of his nature shone through 
his actions and accomplishments, irradiating and giv- 
ing them that peculiar brilliant ease which, from its 
rarity, we so delight to find in the world. 

I have seen on an early Christmas morning, the 
lights struggling and beaming out through the mas- 
sive stained windows of a great cathedral, enliven- 
ing the grey, frosty atmosphere, making the falling 
snow alive with beautiful tints, and embi-acino: in its 
calm variety the devotees who were surrounding the 
temple. Those lights beaming out told the world the 
nature of the pure movements within. So it was 
with Eussell. 

" We have arrested Eussell," said Lord Castle- 
reagh, visiting the prison of Charles H^-miltou Teel- 
ing. 



160 



"Then," said the latter, " the soul of honor is cap- 
tive." 

Look at his picture, drawn bj a bold, yet delicate 
hand : 

" A model of manly beauty. * * Though more than six feet 
high, his majestic stature was scarcely observed, owing to the 
exquisite symmetry of liis form. Martial in his gait and demea- 
nor, his appearance was not altogether that of a soldier. His 
dark and steady eye, compressed lip, and somewhat haughty 
bearing, were occasionally strongly indicative of the camp; but 
in general, the classical contour of his finely-formed head, the 
expression of almost infantine sweetness which characterized his 
smile, and the benevolence that beamed in his fine countenance, 
seemed to mark him out as one who was destined to be the orna- 
ment, grace, and blessing of private life. His voice was deep- 
toned and melodious ; and though his conversational powers were 
not of the first order, yet, when roused to enthusiasm, he was 
sometimes more than eloquent. His manners were those of the 
finished gentleman, combined with that native grace which 
nothing but superiority of intellect can give."* 

Russell was born on the 21st of Nov., 1767, at Bels- 
borough, Dunnahane, parish of Kilshaniek, Cuunty 
Cork. He was entirely educated by his father, v\^hom 
Tone describes as being, in 1790, " a veteran of near 
seventy, with the courage of a hero, the serenity of a 
philosopher, and the piety of a saint." Thomas be- 
ing intended for the Church, was made familiar, 
while yet young, with the Greek and Latin tongues. 
But the cassock was thrown aside for the martial 
cloak, and we find him, at the age of fifteen, going 

* Ulster Magazine, quoted by Maddeo. 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 161 

out to India as a volunteer, with a gallant brother who 
had earned some honor, and the especial approbation of 
King George, for his conduct at the storming of Fort 
Montgomery, in the American war. Having served 
for five years with such distinction as to recommend 
him favorably to the notice of Sir John Burgoyne 
and Lord Cornwallis, he came^home, in disgust, it 
was stated by a relative, his nature being shocked by 
being a witness of some " unjust and rapacious con- 
duct pursued by the authorities in the case of two 
native women of exalted rank." As he returned to 
Europe, the Church entered his head again, and he 
even proceeded to the Isle of Man for ordination. 
Some regulations, however, had to be complied with, 
which caused his return to Ireland, soon after which 
he was appointed to the 64th regiment, and gave up 
his religious intentions professionally. 

Tone met Eussell in the gallery of the Irish Com- 
mons ; their acquaintance commenced in an argu- 
ment. They differed so widely that, being evidently 
struck with, and hoping, no doubt, to convert each 
other, they agreed to dine together the next day, and 
discuss the question ; which was an admirable in- 
stance of the good sense of both. They had, even at 
their first meeting, created a respect for each other's 
opinion, which, after all, is the real foundation for 
admiration and lasting friendship between man and 
man. Eussell w^as a Whig. Tone soon shook him 
out of the delusion. 

From that period forward, they were dear and 
bosom friends. " I think the better of myself," says 



1(>2 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

Tone, "for being the object of tiie esteem of such a 
man as Knssell. I love him, and I honor him." 
^'Tlie affection of his wife and the friendship of Rns- 
sel," lie warmly on his heart : they embalm it into 
the most loying repose, and inspire it witli the teii- 
derest and manliest emotions. 

After Rnssell left Dublin, and the happy reunions 
at Tone's '' little box of a house" at Sandy mount, for 
his regiment, lie was appointed a magistrate in 
Tyrone, and was '• beloved and respected," for some 
years, at Dungannon, from which place lie removed 
to Belfast. lie became a member of the iirst United 
Irish Society formed in Belfast, and was arrested in 
1796, and, with Samuel Xeilson and others, brought to 
Newgate, in Dublin, where he remained until 1798, 
when he was sent to Fort George, in Scotland. Pre 
vious to his arrest, the chief command of the United 
Irishmen of Down had been assigned to Russell, 
"and the military organization of this county was 
considered complete, when talent and virtue were 
combined in the person of its chief." ^ 

He was liberated, with others, in 1802, proceeded 
to France, thence returned to the Xorth of Ireland ; 
and had no sooner ariived than he devoted himself, 
with renewed energy, to the attainment of the object 
to which his dear friend Tone and himself had bound 
themselves, and for which the former had died. He 
quickly followed that brave soul. Of the premedi- 
tated movement of Robert Emmett, Russell was a 

* Teeling's Narrative, p. 224. 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 163 

member of the Provisional Government, and o-eneral- 
in-cliief of the Northern District. In tin's capacity, 
he issued a proclamation," da^:ed Julj^ 2tl:th, 1803, the 
day after Emmett's rising in Dublin. He was arrested 
on the evening of the 9th September. 

When brought before the authorities at the Castle, 
he lost none of that firmness peculiar to him. All 
that was haughty in his nature arose. His lofty 
figure was erect : his face more beautiful than usual 
with the intense conviction of riu-ht that was movino^ 
his soul, before finding utterance. Balanced between 
enthusiasm and determination, and taking from each 
those emotional indications wliich the soul, at such a 
moment, both incites and grasps at, he looked the 
cavalier that he trulv was : 



* "THOMAS RUSSELL, 

^'■Member of the Pi ovlsioiutl Government, and General-in-Chief of ihe 
Northern Diatrict. 

"Men of Ireland! — Once more in arms to assert the rights of mankind, liberate 
your country ! You see by the secrecy with which this effort has been conducted, 
and by tlie multitudes in all parts of Ireland, who are engaged in executing this 
great object, that your Provisional Government has acted with wisdom. You will 
see that in Dublin, the West, the North, and the South, the blow has been struck in 
the same moment. Your enemies can no more withstand than they could foresee 
this mighty exertion. The proclamation and regulations will show that your inte- 
rests and honor have been considered. Your General, appointed by that Govern- 
ment to command in this district, has only to exhort you to comply with these 
regulations. Your valor is well known; be as just and humane as you are brave, 
and then rely, with confidence, that God, with whom alone is victory, will crown 
your efforts with success. The General orders that hostages shall be secm'ed in all 
quarters: and hereby apprises the English Commander, that any outrage, contrary 
to the acknowledged laws of war, and of morality, shall be retaliated in the severest 
manner. And he further makes known, that such Irish as, in ten days from the 
date of this, are found in arms against their country, shall be treated as rebels, 
committed for trial, and their properties confiscated. But all men behaving peace» 
ably, shall be under the protection of the law. 

" Head Quarters, Juhj 2ith, 1803 " 



1Q4: 'ninety-eight and 'fq-kty-eight. 

"I glory in the cause," said he, "in which I havo 
engaged ; and for it, I would meet death with plea- 
sure, either in the field or on the scaffold.'" 

True, indeed, is it, Gioberti — " Faith adorns disso- 
lution." 

Eussell was tried and convicted at Downpatrick, 
on the 20th of October, lie declined calling any 
witnesses in his defence; and in reply to the usual 
question of the court — wliat had he to offer why 
sentence should not be pronounced? — made an elo- 
quent and impressive speech, of about twenty min- 
utes' duration. He reviewed the transactions of his 
life, from 1790, when, with Tone, he came to those 
conclusions from which neither ever swerved, and 
boasted of those years with triumph. He vindicated 
his conduct, ou the grounds of conviction of con- 
science, and entreated the coui't to spare the lives of 
those whom his example had brought into the move- 
ment, and make him the only victim. 

He was executed the following day. 

On the arrest of Eussell, 16th September, 1796, 
the Adjutant-generalship becoming vacant, the Rev. 
William Steele Dickson — a good, popular, and cour- 
ageous Presbyterian clergyman, who had been, says 
Teeling, the " early asserter of Ireland's indepeiid- 
ence, the eloquent advocate of his Catliolic fellow- 
countrymen" — was appointed to that post. He, 
however, was arrested on the 4th of June, 1798, and 
Henry Joy McCracken was made Commander-in- 
Chief of the Army of the Xcnth. 

McCracken was born in Belfast, on the 31st of 



l^E vmrEt> IRISHMEN. 165 

August, 1Y6T. The son of a father remarkable for 
his integrity and polished manner, and of a mother, 
whose sweetness and practical charity rendered her 
jji'esence tliat of an endearing spell ; the boy Henry 
strongly partook of these characteristics. He w^as 
the heir, too, of persecution ; his father's ancestors 
having been driven from Scotland, and his mother's 
from France, for their religious predilections. Thus, 
France, Scotland, and Ireland contributing to form 
his nature, it is not sui'prising that the full-blooded 
young Celt should exhibit that love of adventure, 
courage, and perception, amounting almost to intui- 
tion, which characterize the race. As he grew^ up, 
and the unbending strength of his nature was thor- 
oughly defined, the simplicity of his heart also 
became equally prominent. One supported the 
other, and were the necessary adjuncts of his cha- 
racter, as the strong and simple buttments that 
sustain a perfect arch. 

Tall, slightly-formed, active, and prepossessing, 
alike susceptible to the calm advances of philosophy, 
or the happy diablerie of fan ; the child of humanity 
and humor ; the friend of droll wit and severe wis- 
dom ; generous and mechanical, brave and gentle, 
McCracken w^as a happy combination, and a thor- 
ough man. 

His family had introduced the manufacture of 
cotton into Ireland, and his father and uncles being 
pai'tners in a factory for that purpose, Henry was 
employed in it. He afterwards, the firm having 
been dissolved, formed a partnership wnth an appren- 



l66 ^NINETY-EIGHT AND 'fORTY-EIGHT. 

tice of the old firm, and opened a calico-j)rinting 
factory. He was, however, at this time, deeply 
immersed in the political waters, the struggling in 
which so occupied his energies that, in over a year, 
the money sunk in his establishment was lost. 

He had been a great friend of Russell's since 1790, 
the latter throwing oyer the former the influence 
which Tone had already flung over him. In the in- 
telligence, energy, and influence of McCraken, Rus- 
sell discovered a new power far the furtherance of 
the political schemes of the day. McCracken was a 
member of the first United Irish Society formed in 
Belfast ; and from his position among the middle and 
working classes, by whom he was beloved, as well as 
keeping comparatively in the back-ground, the better 
to shield his activity, and laboring early and late, he 
proved of the greatest importance in the Korth. The 
activity displayed in winning members was only 
equalled by the ingenuity of the plans by which he 
baflled the attempts of the authorities to tamper with 
the members. In 1795, McCracken entered the 
reorganized Society. The date of his certificate is 
March 3d, 1795. He had devoted much of his ener- 
gies to fostering a union between the Catholics and 
Presbyterians, by inducing the members of the organ- 
ization called Defenders, who were at first opposed to 
republicanism, to join the United Irishmen ; consider- 
able success attended his endeavors, and in '9S he 
boasted of having at his disposal seven thousand of 
the former. He became a mark for the hatred of the 
Orangemen, from the succor he aflorded to their vie- 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. l67 

tims ; and on the lOtli October, 1796, was arrested 
and conveyed to Newgate, Dublin. He was after- 
wards removed toKilinainliam jail, whei'e his brother 
WiUiam was confined, having been arrested in April, 
1797. June the 9th, of this year, he wa^ote to his sis- 
ter, " The day before yesterday, we saw from our 
windows two militia-men. conducted to the Pai-k by 
all the military in this neighborhood, and there shot 
for being United Irishtnen." 

The brothers were admitted to bail on the 8th Sep- 
tember, 1797, Henry's health being so much injni-ed 
by liis imprisonment, as to incapacitate him for busi- 
ness on his return to Belfast. 

He had no time, however, for illness. The body 
of such a man is completely subservient to the soul. 
His mind was soon employed, and the body, in utter 
forgetfulness of its ills, followed the bent of the for- 
mer's inclination. 

As the mind, like a bow, is bent, so the body, like 
the arrow, is directed and i-eceives an impetus. 

McCracken, with renewed energies, visits Dublin 
in February '98, on an embassy from the North ; and 
after some time bears back the instructions of the 
Leinster Directory. It was about this period that he 
had a narrow escape from the assault of some armed 
yeomen in Hercules street, Belfast ; and owed his life 
to the daring assistance of a butcher's wife, who, 
armed with her husband's knife, came to the rescue, 
and ultimately put the ruffians to flight. 

When McCracken received the chief command of 
Ulster, it was but three days before that appointed for 



168 



the outbreak. His great energy, comprehensiveness, 
and decision, now found congenial and necessary 
action. His plans exhibit organizing and executive 
powers of a high order. He issued instructions for 
simultaneous attacks on Antrim, Randalstown, Bal- 
linahinch, Saintfield, IS'ewtown-Ards, and Portaferry. 
By such he hoped to possess himself of the chief 
points in the counties of Antrim and Down, and the 
means of communication with Tyrone and Donegal. 
The day preceding his March on Antrim, he ad- 
dressed the following bulletin to the army of Ulster : 



"To-morrow we march on Antrim — drive the garrison of 

Eandalstown before you, and hasten to form a junction with tlie 

commander-in-chief. 

"Heney Joy MoCeaoken. 

" Tlie First Year of Liberty, June Qth, 1798." 



Mustering at the old fort of Cregarogan, he 
marched his forces in three divisions on Antrim. 
The most perfect order was observed in his little 
army ; the martial cadences of the Marseillaise hymn, 
chaunted aloud, inspiring regularity, and agitating 
the green banners that arose from the centre of each 
division. 

Within view of the town the General, in delibe- 
rately passionate strains, addressed the insurgents. 

They cry — '' Lead us to liberty or death !" 

However informed, it is needless to conjecture, but 
the fact is known that General Xugent had been 
made aware of McCracken's plans. A loyalist, quo- 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 160 

ted by Dr. Madden, states that " the authorities at 
Belfast had been apprised of the intended rising at 
one o'clock in the morning, the day of the attack on 
Antrim." 

McCracken advanced boldly into the town, under 
a steady and well-directed fire of the king's cavalry 
— still the insurgents proceeded on, and at the third 
volley from the enemy, opened on them a galling 
fire, which forced the cavalry to give way. Here, 
the pikemen advanced to the very jaws of the ene- 
my's guns — grapeshot hailing a death-storm around 
them — there, the cavalry charge, and are welcomely 
received by another cordon of pikes. Now they 
close, and roll over, and rise and fall, and some rise, 
leaving their foe's dead w^eight upon the earth. 

In this first attack on Antrim, the brave conduct 
of the insurgent general chiefly contributed to their 
temporary success. 

" It was now that McCracken displayed that bold and daring 
spirit so conspicuous in the leaders of the Wexford Campaign. 
Following up his success, he pressed on the foe, drove the enemy 
from their guns, bore down rank after rank in succession, min- 
ghng hand to hand with the bravest of the fight. In an hour 
after his entry he became master of the town, but a fatal mistake 
blasted his success, and changed at once the fortune of the 
day."* 

This mistake was made by a party of successful 
*' rebels" from the northern district, who were march- 



* Teeling's Narrative, p. 285. 

8 



170 'ninkty-eight and 'forty- eight. 

ing to join their Commander-in-Chief, according to 
orders. They met a coi-ps of royalist cavah*y on 
retreat, wliicli the former mistook for a charge; and, 
conclnding that they were too late, and that the 
insnrge-nts were routed, became panic-stricken, and 
fled. The cavalry took heart, halted, were reinforced 
by troops from Belfast and the camp of Blaris- 
Moore, and in turn became the assailants. A party 
of insnro'ents, observino: the transaction, conveyed 
the panic to the town, which the most desperate 
endeavors of McCracken and James Hope — " a man 
whose talents were far above his fortunes, and whose 
fidelity, as well on this occasion as in subseqnent 
calamities, would have honored the days of ancient 
chivali-y" — were not able to stay. The division 
headed by Hope maintained its ground to the last. 
McCracken retreated with his troops in order, and 
planted his shattered flag on the heights of Done- 
gore. 

Manoeuvring for some time in the adjacent moun- 
tains, he baffled and frightened the enemy that hnng 
on his trail, by his ingenuity. His follow^ers reduced, 
as Teeling states, to seven, he kept the yeomen in a 
state of dismay by dressing up poles, and placing 
them in advantageous positions, retreating under this 
cover : repeating the same deception at intervals and 
various places. 

But this could not last. He w^as arrested at Car- 
rickfergns, tried on the ITth July, and executed at 
Belfast. 

The brave James Hope, wdio survived the troubles 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 171 

of that year, was living in 181:6. He had an cy]->por- 
tunity of knowing the great majority of the leaders, 
for he was a faitlifnl and trusted soldier under, and 
messenger between, them. He was well acquainted 
with the talents and capacities of many, and was 
quite capable of counselling, as well as obeying them. 
He says, "Henry Joy McCi-acken was the most dis- 
cerning and detei-mined man of all our northern 
leaders ; and by his exertion, chiefly, the Union of 
tlie societies of the JS'orth and South was main- 
tained." 

Upon the walls of his cell, the captive wrote the 
following line from the "jN"iglit Thouglits," which 
indicates the love of mankind that prompted him to 
give his life for their freedom : 

"A friend's worth all the hazard we can rim." 

Let us, from the scaffold of McCracken, after the 
United Irishmen of Down. There is plenty of time 
for contemplation— for quiet in the next world, or 
retrospection in exile. Xow let us follow action. 

The men of Down appeared in arms, near Saint- 
field, on the 9tli, two days after the battle of Antrim. 
Here, by means of an ambuscade — being foi-ced to 
battle before any formidable number had collected— 
they created great slaughter of an English force led 
against them by Colonel Stapelton. The action was 
indecisive, but sanguinary, Stapelton retreating in 
order to Combei-. The next day, Captain Matthews 
made a gallant defence of Portaferry against the 



172 'nTNETY-EIGHT and ^FORTY-ElGfif. 

insui'gents, %Yho retreated, after a very spirited con^ 
test. Matthews, also, not considering it " prudent" to 
risk a second attack, passed over to Strangford. 

On this same morning, a considerable body of 
pikemen entered Newtown-Ards, were repulsed, but 
returned with a few ship-cannon, in the day, and 
possessed theraselves of the town. 

Saintfield became the rendezvous for the United 
troops. On the 11th, nearly seven thousand men 
presented themselves. Henry Munroe was chosen 
commander. 

Chivalrous, romantic, enterprising, and brave, he 
accepted the command with every feeling of pride, 
and every hope of success. Possessed of consider- 
able military ability, having been in the Yolunteers 
from boyhood, and having mental energies equal to 
bodily activity, his sanguine temperament already 
had visions of the triumphs he longed for. Panting 
for glory, his devoted passion overleaped barriers 
which should have been met ; and gifted with 
remarkable powers, his romance, at times, either 
disdaining the collision, or fearful of such an encoun- 
ter, did not afford them a fair test of displaying their 
resources. 

For good or ill, however, Munroe has one great 
point : he is decisive. What he makes his mind up 
to, he flings his body at it. 

On the 11th, he had garrisoned Ballinahinch under 
the brave Townshend ; and, on the next day, cover- 
ing the rear of his army by a strong force on Creevy 
Rocks, he marched thither himself. 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 1Y3 

General JS'ugent, supported by General Barber, is 
on the way from Belfast to attack him. 

Mnnroe, posting his best marksmen in various 
lines of ditches which divided some fields on the side 
of a steep hill by which the king's troops must pass— 
and where the fences rose, as it were, tier over tier, a 
windmill crowning the summit — placed one of his 
ofiicers, McCance, in command ; drew up tlie main 
body on the hill of Ednevady; and anxiously awaited 
the advance of Nugent. 

They come. First a spark, and then a flame, 
brightening as it approached, and having a lurid 
train of fire and smoke, announced the march of the 
enemy. Eed havoc fills the eye ; for, fVir as it can 
reach, the English have fired the country. 

Munroe sent a party of insurgents to an eminence, 
close by, to create a diversion, the more surely to 
throw E'ugent into the ambuscade, as well as check 
an advancing division of king's troops, coming from 
Downpatrick. The latter avoided the insurgents, 
and succeeded in joining the General. 

Nugent advancing, hastens to dislodge the "rebels" 
on the eminence. Munroe's movement has suc- 
ceeded, and McOance from his ambush pours out 
such a fire, that the whole British line is struck back, 
and for an hour, with considerable losg, vainly at- 
tempts to advance. The party which seduced the 
British General into his position, now possess them- 
selves of the Windmill hill, and, making good use of 
the advantage, keep up a well-directed fire, flinging 
such death and dismay into the troops, that it is with 



174 

great difficulty they are made to approacli it: "In 
one regiment, in particular," says Teeling, " the 
utmost exertions of the officers were necessary to 
induce the men to advance." General IN'ugent, now 
between Ballinahinch and the hill, formed a front, 
and directed fire against both. General Barber's 
heavy artillery was very effective, and Munroc, 
having but a few ship-guns, of small calibre, to 
oppose him, withdrew his men from Windmill Hill,* 
ordered Townsliend to evacuate the town, sent word 
to McCanco — who, until a third message, refused to 
retire from the ambuscade, and concentrated his 
whole force on Edrevady, where he formed for ac- 
tion, and offered battle to Nugent. The latter did 
not accept the challenge, but entered the town 
during the night. 

Tlie troops revelled in licentiousness — the rebels 
were awake with suspense — that night. 

The activity and hope of Munroe were redoubled. 
He was seen everywhere through the camp, cheering 
enlivening, and attending the wants of his men. 

In consequence of a message from the town, 
stating the drunkenness and disorder which pre- 

* Teeling gives a couple of anecdotes illustrative of the enthusiasm and devotion 
exhibited by the peasantry. On retiring from the hill, the division left two of its 
numbers behind. One absolutely refused to quit his post, and did not until he fired 
his last round, then bounded over a fence and reached his division. The other, 
through the fatigues of the previous days, had lain on the ground and fallen into 
a profound sleep. He was roused by the British walking on him. " When it was 
discovered that life was not extinct, he. was ordered up for immediate execution. 
'I came here to die,' he observed, with the greatest composure, 'and whether on 
Ednevady or tlie Windmill Hill, it can make but little difiference.' He was suspended 
to one of the a»ms of the windmill." That answer would have won his freedom 
from any other foe. Vide JS^arratwe, p. 351. 



THE UNITED IRISHME2T. 175 

vailed amongst the troops, miicli disagreement en- 
sued — the insurgents being desirous of marching in ; 
Mnnroe being as positivel}'^ opposed to it. Many 
arguments were used, bnt to no purpose. Munroe 
was immovable. 

"We scorn," said he, "to avail ourselves of tire 
ungenerous advantage which night affords — we will 
meet them in the blush of open day — we will fight 
them like men ; not under the cloud of night, but the 
first rays of to-moi'row's sun !" 

Who, that knows anything of the conduct of the 
royalists dui-ing that year in Ireland, will have any 
hesitation in saying that here Mnnroe was too far 
above his enemies to be any benefit to his friends? 
Had the burning trail of Kugent no eloquence to 
urge him on ? Had the burning impatience of his 
men, or the fear of disheartening them, no warning? 
Who reads his character aright must know that he 
would not willingly lose any chance. Personal glory, 
as well as patriotism would not allow him. And he 
was brave, too — ay, as the bravest of that brave 
year. A mistaken notion of chivalry shattered the 
hopes of Ulster' — but it is useless to speculate. He 
should have thaidvcd his God for the opportunity, 
and sacked the town. 

His speech created discontent : numbers, and 
amono^ them a bodv of seven hundred of the best 
armed, left the camp. 

Munroe is stirring with the dawn : those who 
remained gave evidence of their strong faith in him, 
whi'di be was well calculated to inspire. 

He divided his force into two divisions — one to 



176 



penetrate tlie town on the rigbt, tlie other com- 
manded by himself, marching to the left. With 
eight small ship-cannon drawn np against the town, 
he commenced the attack. The right division met 
a desperate fire, which for a wdiile checked their 
advance. The British commanding officer falling, 
however, his men retreated to the town. 

Mnnroe's division seemed inspired with the bril- 
liant designs of its chief, and it in turn filled his 
glowing mind with the most hopeful self-reliance. 
Of the chief and his brave band, at this period, no 
words can give a better idea than this spirited 
description of Teeling : 

" They bore clown all opposition ; forced an entrance into tlie 
town, under the most destructive fire of musketry and cannon, 
repeated rounds of grapeshot sweeping whole ranks, which were 
as rapidly replaced. A piece of heavy artillery fell into the 
hands of the pikemen, who charged to the very muzzle of the 
guns. 

"Munroe gained the centre of the town; exposed to a cross fire 
of musketry in the market square, raked by artillery, his ammuni- 
tion exhausted, he pressed boldly ©n the enemy with the bayo- 
net and the pike; the charge was irresistible, and the British 
General ordered a retreat. Here followed a scene unexampled, 
perhaps, in ancient or modern warfare. The United troops, 
unacquainted with the trumpet's note, and enveloped by the 
smoke which prevented a distinct view of the hurried move- 
ments in the British line, mistook the sounded retreat for the 
signal of a charge, and shrinking, as they conceived, from the 
advance of fresh numbers, fied with precipitation in a southerly 
direction from the town, wliile the British were as rapidly eva- 
cuating it on the north." * 

♦ Narrative, p. 2M. 



THE UNIIED IRISHMEN. ITT 

A regiment of cavalry, unoccupied previously, 
charged the insurgents, and gave the infantry time 
to recover from the effects of their panic. 

Munroe's presence of mind never deserted him. 
He had shown both great skill and. valor; and even 
now, with but a handful, reached the hill of Edne- 
vady. halted, rallied his men, and face-d the enemy 
again. The hill was almost encircled. One gap 
remained open ; and through tliis, at last, the chief 
dashed, followed by the remnant of his glorious band 
— not one hundred and fifty men. 

He was a noble fellow of thirty and one summers. 

Two days after the battle, he was discovered, 
identified, and hanged before his own house, where 
his wife, mother, and sister recided. 

He faced the scaffold as he faced the foe — proudly, 
and with " undaunted comjoosure." 

His death quieted the North. 

Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whom Margaret Fuller 
(d'Ossoli) calls the "noblest and loveliest of modern 
Preux," was born on the 15th October, 1763. He 
w^as the fifth son of Augustus Frederick, first Duke 
of Leinster, and Emilia Mary, daughter of Charles, 
Duke of Eichmond. From youth, the future patriot 
exhibited a fondness fur militaiy affairs ; and in one 
of his letters, when quite a boy, to his mother, he 
tells her that he was busily engaged in erecting a 
fortification in the orangery ^ ^ ^. '^ AVlien it is 
finished, I intend to put the cannons of both our 
ships upon it, and to fire away. What is the pleas- 
antest of all, I laid it all out myself I also took a 



178 'nixkty-eight and 

very pretty survey of the fields round tlie Garonne." 
He continues, "I was delighted to see, by the last 
"Courier," that Lord lN"ortli had been so attacked in 
the House of Commons, and that the opposition car- 
ried off everything.'' These passages in the boy's 
letter well indicate the future man. We see there 
the embryo soldier, and tlie hater of intolerance. 

The mimic thunder of his fortification on the 
Garonne rolled into the future, to give warning of 
the daring Si3irit and heroic nature that was to 
follow. 

Soon his boy-glory was transferred into actual 
service ; and long before he was a man, we find him 
reaping military honors in .America. On a retreat 
near Charleston, when the 19th king's regiment were 
frightened by Colonel Lee, young Fitzgerald covered 
the movement of the British colonel, saved the bag- 
gage, and kept the American corps in check until he 
cut off their approach by bi-eaking up a wooden 
bridge over a ci-eek which separated them. For this 
act of bravery and self-possession, he was made aide- 
de-canip to Lord Rawdon ; in which position he was 
enabled to gratify his taste " on a larger and more 
scientific scale." General Sir Jolm Doyle says of 
liim, during this period, " Danger enhanced the value 
of the enterprise in the eyes of this brave young 
creature." He was ever active and ever vigilant 
that he should never be absent when anything was 
to be done, and where the greatest difiiculties were to 
be overcome. " It was impossible," says Doyle, " to 
refuse the fellow, whose frank, manly, and ingenuous 



THE UNITED IKISIIMEN. 179 

manner would liave won over even a greater tyrant 
than myself." This romantic pnrsiiit of difficulties 
got liim rebuked by Lord Moira and Doyle. At 
Eutaw Springs, be was wounded, but bis own ailings 
did not prevent bim from offering liis services to 
Colonel Wasbington, wbo was likewise wounded, and 
a prisoner. 

"It is, indeed, not a little striking, that there should have 
been engaged at this time, on opposite sides, in America, two 
noble youths, Lafayette and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose 
political principles afterwards so entirely coincided; and that, 
while one of theni Avas fated soon to become the victim of an 
unsuccessful assertion of these principles, it has been the far 
brighter destiny of the other to contribute, more than once, 
splendidly to their triumph." * 

He returned borne by tbe way of St. Lucia, wbere 
be was for a sbort time on tbe staff of General 
O'Hara ; and under date August 3d, 1783, writing 
from Carton, tbe family seat in Kildare, to bis mo- 
tber, we find bim still cberisbing bis transatlantic 
experiences. '■' If you insist on letters," be says, 
"I must write you an account of my American cam- 
paigns over again, as tbat is tbe only tbing T remem- 
ber. I am just now interrupted by tbe borrid par- 
son." In a montb be is tired of borne, and pants for 
action. "If it were not for you" (bis motber) "I 
really believe I should go join either the Turks or 
Kussians." 

* Moore's " Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald." Am. Ed., p. 18, 



180 'ninety-eight and 

In this year lie entered Parliament for the borough 
of Ath J, but it was stupid work. Being of a suscep- 
tible nature, and having fallen in love once or twice, 
the affection being entirely on his side, he proceeded 
to Nova Scotia, and made many excursions through 
the then untamed wilds. He went through Buffalo to 
Detroit and Mackinaw — was the pilot ol' an unknown 
course for twenty days, and wsis made a citizen of 
the Bear tribe of Indians by Joseph Brandt. To 
this visit may be traced Fitzgerald's republican ideas. 
His letters, during the period, exhibit the changes, 
or rather the formation of his mincl. "The equality 
of everybody, and of their manner of life, I like very 
much. There are no gentlemen ; everybody is on a 
footing. ^ * Every man is exactly what he can make 
himself, or has made himself.""^ He found republi- 
canism in the forest. He learnt equality from the 
red men. " There is nothing," says Margaret Fuller, 
in allusion to this period of Lord Edw^ard^s life, 
'^ more interesting than to see the civilized man thus 
thrown wdiolly on himself and his manhood, and not 
found at fault. "f Fitzgerald had arrived at Jeffer- 
son's idea without knowing it, that such societies as 
the Indians, living without government, "enjoy, in 
their general mass, an infinitely greater degree of 
happiness than those who live under the European 
o-overnments." Flvino^ with a wounded heart from 
society, Fitzgerald found in savage simplicity the 



* Letter to his mother, July 18, 1788. Moore's Life, p. 44 Am. Ed- 
t " Summer on the Lakes," p. 228, 



THE ttNlTED lEiSHMEiT. 18l 

foundation of a theory which, while it quieted his 
heart, gave fresh vigor to his liead, and took him 
from the aristocratic net- work witli which his early 
associations and class were surrounded. He was a new 
man. His letters from America are excessively 
interesting, but as they can be easily obtained, I con- 
fine myself barely to give such glimpes of them as 
tend to exhibit the leanings, points, and burdens of 
his lovely nature. After staying three days at J^iag- 
ara, he was "absolutely obliged to tear himself 
away." It was "impossible to describe" the Falls : 
"Homer could not I" From Michilimackinack he 
proceeded to the Mississippi, went down in a canoe, 
carrying "presents for the Indian villages," and 
arrived at New Orleans at the beginning of Decem- 
ber, 1789. He returned home at the commencement 
of the following year. Ee-entering Parliament, his 
uncle, the Duke of Richmond, besought him to quit 
the opposition and vote for the government. This 
the nephew promptly refused, and the relatives 
parted in anger. In 1792, Fitzgerald went to France, 
lodged "with his friend Paine"— Tom, of the 
" Rights of Man "*— renounced his title at a public 
meeting — there drank to " the speedy abolition of all 
hereditary titles and feudal distinctions,"— wrote his 
mother to direct to him " Le Citoyen Edouard Fitz- 
gerald"— was "delighted" at the success of the 

* He says of him in a letter, " Tlie more I see of his interior, the more I like and 
respect him. I cannot express how land he is to me ; there is a simpHcity of man- 
ner, a goodness of heart, and a strength of mind in him, that I never knew a man 
before 



l82 'ninety-eight and -FOUTY-EIGnT. 

Freucli Eevolution, and fell in love with the beantV 
fill Pamela, daughter of De Genii* by the Duke 
of Orleans,^ to whom he Vv^as married, and with 
whom, on the 2d January, 1793, he arrived in Lon- 
don. 

Always siding with the opposition, it is no wonder 
that Fitzgerald's experiences in France, his residence 
w^ith Paine, and above all the course of the Irish 
administration, should accelerate his capacity and 
warm his intellect to the heat of the revolutionary 
movements of the period. 

He joined the United Irishmen, became one of the 
executive directory,f received the chief direction of 

* There is much mystery conceroing tliis beautiful creature, whose loveUness, mis- 
fortunes, and ultimate miserable fate, have trembled the tear to many a sympathetic 
eye. A halo of romance is about her, and wliere there is not a halo there is a shroud. 
Little doubt as to her being the daugliter of Orleans, as above stated, was held until 
the publication of Dr. Madden's second volume of the " Lives of the United Irish- 
men." In Appendix No. VI. he says, " The Due de Chartres was then (1782) in 
correspondence with a Mr. Forth, and requested him to find out, and send over to 
France, a handsome little girl of from five to six years of age. Mr. Forth * * * sent 
by his valet a horse, together with an infant. * * Tins infant was Pamela, afterwards 
Lady Fitzgerald. Her arrival at the Palais Royale, occasioned odd conjectures. 
She was, however, educated with the prince and princesses, as a companion and 
friend, * * * and her astonishing resemblance to the Duke's children would have 
made her pass for their sister, were it not for her foreign accent." Where Dr. Mad- 
den received this intelligence he does not inform us. I think it rather remarkable 
that of all the children in England, " Mr. Forth" should have sent that one bearing 
so " astonishing a resemblance " to tlie Duke's children. If a child was sent from 
England, it no doubt was changed for the proper one ; the sending the valet being 
a ruse, the better to bring the Duke's child under the care of its mother, Madame 
de Genlis, who was at tliat time educating the Duke's children, and was suddenly 
possessed with the idea of bringing up wljh them, as a companion, an " English 
child of their own age." Again : the actual cliild might have been left for a couple 
of years in England, to get " its foreign accent," to make the thing easier. Dr. 
Madden's story but convinces me that Pamela was as stated in the text. 

t The first directory of United Irishmen was the Ulster one, there being no organ- 
ization of the United Irish in other provinces until two years after the Northern 
directory was organized. The latter consisted of Samuel Neilson, Doctor Williauj 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 183 

it? military affairs, went to Switzerland with Arthur 
O'Connor, where, on the French frontier, he iiad a 
satisfactoi-y interview with lluche, determined event- 
ually on rising in March, '\)S, and said confidently 
that, "without risking a general engagement, he 
would be able to get possession of JJublin.'' He 
was opposed to French aid — did not e.\[»ect it — and 
believed in preparing tlie couniiy tor an iminediaie 
rising, on which he would depend, lie gave a docu- 
ment to lieynolds, estimating a load «.'f 2*9,890 
armed men m tiie country. iCvyi.olos, iiu Arnold 
ol li'eland, beiraved the movemeni. Tnc uelei;ates 
at Bond's were ariested; tliis wa^ quickly lollowed 
up by the seizure of JLmmeit anu iViCxNeviii. Lord 
Edward's family pressed on him the necessity of 
Hight. Lord Clare begged his ^tepf.Lller, for (jod's 
sake, to get him out of tne couiniy — nih r.ng dua rlie 
pons siiouid be thrown open lo i.im. 

llie safety of Lord Loward w;.^ c. becoiiuary 
thought: the «Jovernment tear^u liis i>r^^>i'e vvuli 
the people, and would rather let liim escupe .han 
arre&t him. Eut Fitzgej'ald was imuKjvaluc : one 
thousand pounds was offered for his ap|a\ hen&ion, 
aid the emissarits of govermnem were on iiis 



T-^jinaiit, Robert Sininis, William Simnis, &c. Arthur O'Connor au.. L.n-A Edward 
Fiizgerald established the Lelnster, or chief directory. Tne fi)r.;:cr became a 
Uniied Irishman and a director, in November, 1T96 Lord Eiwuni was nominated 
at the same tiaie. Di^. weeii tiuj and the close of 1797, Bond, M.Nov.ii, INKCormick, 
Jackson, and Adu. K umjtt ^(ica le directors. Ein uett, wi.o nail been a member 
of the society sinit.- S^p lii.bcr or October, 1796, refused to be a director, but 
on the arrest of O'Co.iuor, and during the laVter's imprisonment in the Tower 
of Dublin, he accepieii the post, in Jan., 1797.— Madden's Lives, &c. The Memoir 
furnished the Government by Eiumett, O'Connor, and McNevin, &c. 



184 'ninety ElGUT AND 

track. After evading tliem for sorae time, bj the 
devotion of his friends, lie was arrested on the 19th 
May, at the house of ^N^icholas Murphy, " a respecta- 
ble feather merchant," in Thomas street, Dublin. 
Major Sirr, Major Swan, one E-yan, and a drummer, 
were instrumental in his arrest. With them he had 
a desperate struggle — his only weapon a dagger — and 
though not of large stature or make, he fought like a 
tiger. He was in bed when Swan entered, quickly 
followed by the rest. He killed Ryan, gave numer- 
ous wounds to Swan, and was shot in the shoulder by 
Sirr, who took deliberate aim while the hero was 
engaged with Swan. The drummer stabbed him in 
the back of the neck. He was conveyed to l^ewgate, 
and died of his wounds, June 3d. 

Thus died Fitzgerald. Well might we say of him 
that the nobility of his soul put the coronet out of 
si^ht. Of a chivalrous and heroic line, in him all 
the best qualities of his race seemed to culminate. 
In him w^ere all those qualities to make a popular, if 
not a great leader ; and from him emanated all that 
conspired to shed lustre on whatever he undertook. 
To him, as Ave have seen, danger had no threats. 
Difficulty to him was not. His enthusiasm, springing 
from the fountains of a pure heart, lit up his purposes 
with an almost divine frenzy. He was thoroughly 
possessed with the truth of his cause ; and through 
the clouds which surrounded it, beheld it alone, 
clear, distinct, and beautiful. All that was necessary 
to gain it was courage. He never knew fear, and 
thus counted not the contingencies which hang on 



TfiE UNITED iRiBHMEN. 



185 



eartlily troubles. He never weiglied danger against 
duty. The inspiration under wliicli Joliann Ficlite 
Bouglit to arouse the Prussians, in 1808, is truly 
applicable to Fitzgerald : " the good to be attained is 
greater than the danger. The good is the re-awaken- 
ing and elevation of the people; against which my 
personal danger is not to be reckoned, but for which 
it may rather be most advantageously incurred. My 
family and my son shall not want the support of the 
nation- — the least of the advantages of having a mar- 
tyr for their fatlier. This is the best choice. I could 
not devote my life to a better end." ^ The French 
trumpets might drown the voice of Fichte ; but the 
words were uttered, and remain. British hounds may 
woiry Fitzgerald to death, but every dagger pointed 
at him, and every bayonet against which he was 
mustering his people, but indicate the power of the 
adversary, and are so many references to the pages 
of history. 

The contemporaries of Fitzgerald vie with each 
other in weaving a garland to his memory ; and 
famous men have made themselves more famous by 
loving him. His enemies even aspire to recount his 
good qualities ; and obscure men wlio beheld him 
have edged themselves into history by telling how 
he looked. 

He envied no one, and was loved by all. His 
generosity of temper only equalled his obstinacy in 
what he thought right. If his mind was not severe 

• Memoir of Johann Gottlieb Ficlite, by William Smith, p. 108, 



?_.._,. .,.^ * 



18G NI.NTETr-EIGHT AND FORTY-ElGHT. 

or deep, it was just and lively ; and if he was not 
politic he was honest. Such was Edward Fitzgerald: 
free not only from a vice, but a defect."^ . 

Doctor John (brother of Sir Tlionias) Esnionde was 
a AV^exford man, but had settled, to practise his pro- 
fession, in Kihhire. His personal attractions were 
remarkable, having a line, manly figure, and a bril- 
liant, yet nrbane manner. Qualified to predispose 
the thoughtful by ]iis mental acquirements, as well 
as harmonize conviviality by liis ease and humor, he 
flitted through the dreams of many a fair beauty; and 
was soon married to one who, in addition to rare per- 
sonal favors, was possessed of S(^ large a fortune that 
her husband cared little al)out his practice, which 
liad become considerable. Fi'om his position and 
wealth, Esmonde was assigned a prominent position 
in local ali'airs ; and had become connected with the 
United Ii-ishmen at an early date. On the removal, 
on the ISth March, of Eeynolds — who had betrayed 
the delegates at Bond's, on the li^tli — from the 
County Committee, Dr. Esmonde was appointed to 
fill the vacancy. On the 24111 of May, he was in 
command of the Kildare insurgents, who sujprised, 
attacked, and sacked Prosperous. 

He was arrested in Eathcoole, the next day. At 
the time, some hopes of his release were entertained, 
by exchanging him for the son of General Eustace — 
a .prisoner in the hands of the people. Eustace, 
however, escaped (by bribery, it is supposed) from a 

• "I never saw in him, I will not say a vice, but a defect." — Arthur O'Connor. 



THK UNITED IRISHMEN. 187 

Quaker meetiiig-hoiise, wliere he was confined ; and 
Esinonde, being sent to Dublin, was banged on 
Carlisle Bridge. 

The fate of Esmonde excited much feeling, as he 
was beloved by the peo^^le by whom he was sur- 
rounded, in consequence of his frequent charities, his 
attendance on the sick, and the deep sympathy he 
felt for, and the practical consolation he afforded to, 
the poor. 

The enemies of his cause and country, who inva- 
riably looked upon the friends of either with the 
malevolence of personal liatred, admit Esmonde to 
have been a man of honor, humanity, and rare men- 
tal acquirements. 

Of all tlie remarkable men on the public stage at 
the time, to my mind one of the most remarkable was 
William Putnam McCabe^ He stands certainly next 
to Tone as an organizer. If Tone organized with 
rulers, ministers of state, and generals, McCabe 
worked with tlie people, and kept the cauldron of 
United Irishmen ^seething sedition. If the lives of 
otlier members of the conspiracy strike us with deejD 
revei-ence for the philosophy with which they met 
their fates, McCabe's life warms us into admiration 
at the romance which sustained his love of fatherland. 
To o-ive a characteristic outline of a career wliich, to 
follow its never-ceasing action, would fill volumes, is 
no easy task to the writer, nor one which insures 
complete justice to the subject. Yet to consign him 
to a paragraph would be unpardonable. Between 



1^8 ^NINETY-ETGHT AND 'fORTT- EIGHT. 

Other leaders there exist man}^ characteristics in com- 
mon. McCabe stands alone. 

Born in Antrim, he was fortunate in having an up- 
right, high-minded, and patriotic father,"^ who was a 
distant connexion of the American General Putnam, 
after whom our hero was named. In youth McCabe, 
being wdld and rather mischievous, w^as sent to Man- 
chester, in hopes that absence from the scene of his 
pranks would steady him. He knew nothing of poli- 
tics when he left home, but returned fully imbued 
w^ith the ideas of Tom Paine. He became a United 
Irishman on Tone's visit to Belfast, and being gifted 
with energy and speaking talent, w^as soon employed 
by the committee on missions among the people. He 
was inimitable as a mimic, quick-witted, of an auda- 
city not to be overcome, and a courage quite equal to 
any emergency. As the *task imposed on him was 
one of great danger, his chief desire was to attract the 
people without exciting the vigilance of the authori- 
ties. Thus we find the announcement that a " con- 
verted papist w^ould preach the Word in a certain 
barn, and explain how he became convinced of the 
true doctrines of Presbyterianism." Of course a 
crowd collected, as they do on the docks in 'New 

* In 1793, old McCabe's shop, in Belfast, was wantonly sacked by the king's 
troops, on an occasion when they were excited by seeing over some ale-houses the 
portraits of the French General Dumourier, Mirabeau, and Franklin, which they 
demolished. He rehoisted his sign, and in large- letters had painted thereon 
" Thomas McCabe, an Irish slave, licensed to sell gold and silver." But one pane 
of glass remained, and he would not have the others replaced. Orders were given 
to illuminate on the ensuing birth-day of the king. McCabe stuck several candles 
in the lonely pane, saying that the military could do nothing more to the others, 
and would not harm that. 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 189 

York, or elsewhere, to liear some trumpeter blow 
himself and Christianity out. Djessed for the occa- 
sion, and with a voice to suit, young McCabe would 
then knock down religion, leap on politics, and 
finally swear in his auditory. 

This could not go on steadily for any length of time ; 
the magistrates were on the track of the preacher, and 
sent a body of yeomanry to get religion. The place 
was a barn two miles from any habitation. To this 
lonely house' of worship, on the night appointed, 
might be seen serious and well-clad Presbyterians 
directing their nags ; poor and shoeless Catholics, too, 
were attracted to hear the "unknown divine." The 
barn was crowded. Presently a figure, in a trailing, 
religiously-fashioned garment, green spectacles on 
nose, and a broad-brimmed quaker hat, approaches. 
He ascends the table. He is earnest and eloquent. 
He touches the feelings of all present. He makes them 
forget that they are of different religions. He exhorts 
them to forbearance — to brotherly love — to Union. 
Seeing that they are impressed, and quite apropos of 
union, he touches on the state of the country — he en- 
larges on the theme. From the disunion of Irishmen, 
he argued tbe intolerance of England to all sects. Ah, 
if they w ere united ? He proposes the oath of brother- 
hood ; numbers crowd to take it ; when a loud whis- 
tle is heard, and the door is filled with soldiers, while 
the officer calls on the preacher to surrender. 

" Put out the lights !" roars the man of God, flatten- 
ing the candle nearest to him with his beaver. In a 
second all was darkness. 



190 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

The officer is heard in a state of exasperation, 
order] iiii" the soldiers to ojLiard the door, and ao:aiii 
threaten iiigl J asks the surrender of the green spec- 
tacles. 

An excited soldier, cursing the " croppies," calls 
for his gun, which he had left outside, and is told to 
go for it ; but no sooner is outside the barn than the 
loud voice of the preacher is there, imploring the peo- 
ple to be true to each other and their country. That 
nifi'ht he swore in two hundred. 

The ability of the exploit, to say nothing of the 
truths enunciated, would have won a less quick-wit- 
ted people than the Irish. 

McCabe became too marked an individual to stay 
long in Belfast now. Tlis fame had gone abroad ; he 
disappeared, and turned up in Dublin, where he was 
well repeived by, and received new^ commissions from 
the leaders in the metropolis. 

At the trial of some "Defenders" in Eoscomiiion, 
an officer, having a thorough English accent, ap- 
peared in the court-house, attended by his sergeant 
The officer was led to a prominent seat. The trials 
went on. The first man, named Dry, was found 
guilty. The officer addressed the judge, informed 
him he w^as authorized to attempt the wdnning of such 
rebellious characters as the prisoner into the army, 
and requested that his sergeant might confer with the 
fellow. Assent was heartily given. Dry looked at 
the sergeant, who asked him " if he were w^illing to 
enter the service," and enlisted. A second prisoner, 
through stupidity, w^as not so ready to enter the ser- 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 191 

vice, which somehow awakened suspicions in the 
mind of the judge ; but the three principal actors had 
disaj)peared. McCabe, it is needless to say, was the 
officer, Hope tlie sergeant. 

After some little time warrants were issued for 
McCabe in all j)arts of the country. He was no 
sooner missed at one place, than lie was heard of at 
another. Tlie-activity of his movements completely 
baffled the officials. Soon after the above affiiir, he 
travelled in the mail-coach with a member of Parlia- 
ment w^ell acquainted with his appearance, but who 
never recognized in the person and conversation of a 
Yorkshire manufacturer the famous and ubiquitous 
conspirator. With every day's necessities McCabe's 
energies increased. He undertook to organize Wex- 
ford^ and Kildare. In the former he was indefati2:a- 
ble, in the disguises of beggar, peddler, farmer, etc. 
A Wexford gentleman, who took the oath, told 
McCabe's biographer that " he met McCabe in 
twenty different places of that county, in 1798 (it 
must have been in the first four months of the year), 
and never knew him, until McCabe chose, each time, 
to discover himself. In truth," said the informant, 
*'no one could know him; I cannot imagine how 
he disguised himself; but of this I am certain, he 
must have had a number of wigs, differently fash- 
ioned, in his pocket." 

He was arrested once, while escorting Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald, and lodged in the Provost, which^ at the 

* I have alluded to this expedition in "Tlie "Wexford Campaiga," 



192 'ninety-eight and forty-eight. 

time, was guarded by the Dumbarton Fencibles, 
He represented himself as a Scotcli weaver, " per- 
suaded the sero^eant he had worked in his father-in- 
law's factory," and told to the Scotch soldiers and 
tlieir wives, such anecdotes concerning them, that he 
had wormed from one and the other, that tliej sent a 
memorial to the secretary, stating he was not a 
traitor, but " a decent, industrious lad, well known 
and respected in Glasgow." He was released. 

To-day, he was to be found in the Castle-Yard, 
dressed as a yeoman, hearing what he could ; the 
next day, in Westmeath, superintending the manu- 
facture of pikes ; the third, with the French invaders 
about Castlebar. Immediately, we find him piloting 
through a country, restless with vigilance, some offi- 
cers to Dublin, and baffling the sentinel at one of the 
outposts. 

On the borders of Wicklow, he ofters his services 
to an officer to help him arrest " the notorious 
McCabe," which he did by taldng himself offi At 
the disruption of the movement, he disappeared. 
He was believed to be in France or America — the 
government hoped so ; but he was in Wales, and one 
day turns up in London, with a plan to organize an 
insurrection in Eno-land. It is thouo-ht that he was 
connected with the disturbances that took place in 
London, in 1800, with the projects for which Colonel 
Despard was executed, in 1802, and other revolution- 
ary attempts in England. In 1801, he was in France, 
married. He settled near Eouen, and establislied a 
cotton factory. JSTapoleon once visited him, and 



THE UNITED IKISHMEN. 193 

ordered a present of four thousand francs to the 
dilbj for encuuraging native industry. His factory 
nourished, he made money, and lent £4,750 ($23,700) 
to Arthur O'Connor, on an assignment of the pro- 
perty of the hitter, in Ireland. This led to litigation, 
which only ended by his life. His restless spirit could 
not be still. After his first flight, he visited London, 
Nottingham, Paisley, Glasgow, Stockport, Manches- 
ter, and Belfast, and left a train of popular discontent 
behind him. He had a very narrow escape at Bel- 
fast. He heard the tramp of the soldiers on tlie 
stairs ; flung up the window, and leaped — not out of 
it, any one might do that, but — between the feather 
bed and the mattress. Looking round the room, the 
soldiers hurried off, and searched the neighborhood. 
This was in 1803, at the time of Emmett's and Rus- 
sel's rising. From 1810 to 1814, he paid several 
visits to look after the law proceedings instituted 
against O'Connor. He was arrested- on the 19th 
of February, 181-4, and taken to London the follow- 
ing month. Stating to Sir Robert Peel that he was 
aware he could be prosecuted for treason ; but that 
'98 was passed, and that " he did not think it was 
Mr. Peel's wish to put a man to death who had come 
back to his country for the sole purpose of recovering 
his property," he was, after some time, sent to Portu- 
gal, " as the air of Ireland did not agree with his 
health ;" and great danger being expressed as conse- 
quent upon his being found there again. 
There, however, he was again found, and arrested 



194 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

in Belfast, in 181T. For a year and a half-, he was 
kept in prison ; his frame withered, and his system 
'' convulsed by incessant attacks of rhenmatism." His 
lovel}^ daughter, of sixteen, attending him, offered 
a striking and beautiful contrast beside the prema- 
ture old man, of forty-five. His declining health, 
and the personal purpose for which he came to Ire- 
land, wxre represented to the executive. The secre- 
tary replied that it '*' was very extraordinary that, in 
whatever part of the king's dominions his (William 
Putnam McCabe's) business brought him, some pub- 
lic disturbance w^as sure to take place." He was 
permitted to go to France. The next year, lie made 
his \Yi\j to Glasgow, vrlien "disturbances took place," 
and he was again arrested, but found means to get 
off. He died near Paris, in 1821. 

Such is a bird's-eye view of the career of Putnam 
McCabe. Is there not stuff enough — action, situa- 
tions, humor, courage, and purpose sufficient to fill 
the pockets of a few hearty roman cists ? Here is a 
hero for any and every mood — preacher, soldier, 
peddler, farmer, beggar, York foctor, Scotch weaver, 
Irish patriot, and what not besides — who began his 
public career in activity and pious nasal English, and 
ended it strapped with rheumatism, and swearing in 
French, through polite consideration for his hearers. 

The sadness of his last days but carried out that 
law of nature which is illustrated by the morning, 
noon, and night of every twenty-four hours — by the 
months, by the seasons. His life was premature. 



THE UNITED miSHMEN. 195 

His spring was earl}^, and bis winter came when iLe 
Indian snmmer of liis days should have been dif- 
fusing geniality and comfort. 

Let us move on. Here are two or three others, 
rarely mentioned, but remarkable men. 

James Hope — McCabe's sergeant in Eoscommon, 
and also mentioned In reference to the battle of 
Antrim — is the name of a man who, irresj^ective of 
the relations he held with some of the most impor 
tant revolutionary leaders, and which must eml)alm 
his memory, sliould ever command the fullest sympa- 
thy and most resijectful honor from all students and 
lovei's of the '98 struggle. Born of humble parents 
(in the pai'ish of Temple Patrick, County Antrim, on 
the 25th August, 1764), he received but fifteen weeks 
at a day-school in his life, earned his livelihood from 
childhood, and, in the winter evenings, listened to 
his master, "William Bell, reading the Histories of 
Greece, Kome, Ireland, Scotland, and England. 
j^ext hired to a farmer named Gibson ; the father of 
the latter set the boy to read and write. He died 
soon, however ; and half a year's service with 
another farmer (Ritchey) "gave me," says Hope, "a 
little moie help in writing." Beturned to his former 
master, he learned to read the Bible ; and so, by 
assiduously devoting himself, in the spare hours of a 
closely-occupied and necessitous life, Hope accumu- 
lated a variety of sound knowledge, strengthened 
a naturally clear and vigorous intellect, and was 
received into the confidence of such men as Bussell, 
Emmet, McCracken, McCabe, and IsTeilson. His 



196 



FORTY-EIGHT. 



labors in '98 were incessant, from the peculiar and 
iiisinnating character of his niincl, which was at once 
blnnt and politic, convincing and quiet. He was a 
working-man in every sense. He was not calculated 
for a public speaker : " Mj mind," says he, " was like 
Swift's church — the more that was inside, the slower 
the mass came out;" but lie was indispensable in 
sounding and organizing the masses, as well as com- 
municating between the chiefs. As a weaver he has 
lived and supported himself since, having escaped the 
notice which his great ability, used under peculiar 
circumstances, helped so materially to draw upon 
others. Madden speaks of him (1846) as "a modest, 
observant, though retiring man — discreet and thought- 
ful. His height is about five feet seven inches, his 
frame slight and compact, his features remarkable 
for the tranquillity and simplicity of their expression. 
^ ^ '^ His private character is most excellent: he 
is strictly moral, utterly fearless, inflexible and incor- 
ruptible. -^ * * He is a man of very profound 
reflection." 

What thoughts, what memories must encompass 
the last days — the winter's hearth, upon which are 
gathered the embers of such a brave and eventful 
life! 

With capacities far above those which have 
achieved place, pension, and notoriety for the heads 
of some agitators, and the tails of others, Hope has 
preferred to fling his shuttle, than to throw the poli- 
tical dice-box for a living — preferred the monotonous 
rattle of the loom to the fitful cheers of the mob. 



THE UNITED TEISHMEN. 19? 

But lie was a patriot, and not a jDolitician. He 
remained himself, under all circumstances : and must 
be such a type of humanity as Michelet longs for, to 
people the " good time," when " strong men will be 
found who will not want to rise ; who, being born 
of the people, will wish to remain of the people." 

Dennis Taafe — a very remarkable member of the 
Church militant — is deserving of notice. Born in 
Louth, of respectable parents, being w^ell educated, 
and finishing his studies by a residence of several 
years in Prague, he entered a Franciscan convent, • 
and became a priest of that order. Returning to Ire- 
land, proud of his great acquirements, it appears he 
took every occasion to exhibit the ignorance of his 
superiors, and was, of course, both "feared and 
hated." He is described, and correctly, no doubt, as 
"a proud, indolent, slovenly, overbearing scholar," a 
'' turbulent and satirical young friar."-^ Beino- sus- 
pended, he rushed into Protestantism, and a Hebrew 
professorship in Trinity College, and almost immedi- 
ately rebounded into his original church, having 
given bis new^ Bishop and brethren some assurances 
of his " distinguished consideration." Study, politics, 
and the pen, became his refuge, until one day he took 
it into his head to see for himself what the United 
Irishmen were doing, went up into Wicklow, devised 
and fouglit the battle of Ballyellis, which ended so 
disastrously for the loyalists, and for the skillful man- 
agement of which Holt got all the credit. Taafe's 

* Madden. First Series, vol. I. 



198 



desperate courage and cool judgment in the figlit, are 
landed bj Watty Cox and Dr. Brennan.* Being 
severely wonnded, lie made liis way to Dublin, 
packed in a load of bay, and got into an hospital. It 
was at Bally ellis that the obnoxious corps, the Ancient 
Britons, were all but demolished ; in reference to 
which Taafe used to boast, "1 have taught both ancient 
and modern Britons I could fight as well as write." 
After suffering some imprisonment in Newgate, he 
v/as discharged for want of " informations ;" when, in 
respect for his literary abilities. Bishop Macarthy, of 
Cork, and Keogh, of Mount Jerome, Dublin, allowed, 
him an annuity. lie also received assistance from 
Coyne, the Dublin bookseller, and a Mr. Fitzpatrick. 
He devoted much time to w^riting a history of Ire- 
land, which he left unfinished, and died in 1813, aged 



* Both well-known characters of tlie period. Cox edited, with much turbulent 
and sledge-hammer talent, the Irish Magazine. He was perpetually at war with the 
government, was tried for several libels, and after three years' imprisonment, ulti- 
mately received a pension, and was enabled to quit for America. In 1817, he started 
" The Exile," at New York, which ceased in 1818. He wrote and published here the 
ablest and most violent of all his writings — an attack on America, called " The 
Snufif-Box." In America, he was " all things by turns, but nothing long ;" his ex- 
periences including those of editor, pawnbroker, chandler, dairyman, and, " last 
infirmity of a noble mind," whisky-dealer. He went to Bordeaux, in 1821, and sub- 
sequently to Ireland. His pension was stopped in 1835. He survived its receipt 
two years, and died poor, the 17t!i June, 1837. He was, with all his violence, a man 
of liberal education and decided talent. Doctor Brennan, known professionally as 
" Turpentine Brennan," from his first havingintroduced the use of turpentine in the 
treatment of puerperal diseases (for which he became famous in Europe), was a man 
of very great capacity, which he directed to out-Cox Cox in sarcasm and pasquin- 
ade. He was born in Carlow, of an ancient and wealthy family, whose property he 
ruined by going to law on the decease of his father. He had been a contributor to 
Cox's periodical, but quarrelling with him, established a rival — the Milesian Maga- 
■ine. He died in July, 183D. In both of these magazines there are very considerable 
historical details relative to the period. They need a careful reader, however, to 
direst them of the personalities with which they abound. 



THE UNITED IKISHMEN. 199 

sixty years. Just previous to his deatli, he had a lite- 
rary battle with the Oxford Review, edited by mem- 
bers of the University, in which he hurled the noted 
distich at them : 

" Hencefortli, oli Ox-fovd ! Cow-ford be fliy name, 
Thou rearest calves, and long hast reared the same." 

Edward Molloy, leader of the insurgents in the 
locality of Rathangan, was an opulent farmer, and a 
second lieutenant in a yeomanry corps. His influ- 
ence, it is stated by government authority, had the 
most baneful effect, in seducing from their allegiance 
the principal part of the cavalry. He was captured 
on the 27th May, and hanged. De Jean (Fraser) has 
embalmed his memory in a spirited ballad: 

" Six feet to the forehead, with muscle and limb 
To match, had made out his commission for him ; 
But a spirit in danger more recklessly brave, 
True men never followed to glory, or grave — 
Though heart never beat in the breast of a dove, 
With gentler affections for woman to love ; — 
His wisdom withal, and his rough, honest pride 
In the people their tyrants both robbed and belied, 
Confirmed to the man, what he won as a boy — 
An empire of friendship for Edward Molloy." 

The transition from the yeomanry corps into the 
insurgent ranks had become very general thronghout 
I^^ildare ; which "disaffection " is spoken of by Mus- 
grave as " highly disgraceful." Indeed, it was so great 
that he had no difficulty in enumerating those not 



200 'ninety-eight and Vorty-j:ight. 



tainted. Roger McGarrj was a " rebel" leader at 
Monasterevan, where the priest Prendergast, "being 
deeply concerned in the rebellion," was hanged. 

The chief organs of tlie United Irishmen were the 
" Northern Star" and " The Press." The former was 
established in Belfast, January -ith, 1792. The chief 
owner and editor was Samuel ]N"eilson, there being 
eleven others associated with him in the proprietor- 
ship. Russell, Sampson, and the three Presbyterian 
clergymen. Porter, Kilburne, and Dickson, were the 
principal contributors. Tlie success of its teaching 
may be inferred from the persecution it received from 
the government. In 1792, it was prosecuted by the 
crown, and acquitted ; in the year following, six in- 
formations were tiled in the King's Bench against its 
conductors for seditious libels; in 1791, Rabb, the 
printer, was prosecuted and found guilty ; in Septem- 
ber, 1796, the office was devastated, the printer 
and proprietors seized, and after being imprisoned 
in Newgate, Dublin, for more than eigliteen montlis, 
were then liberated without trial; in January, 1797, 
the office was again pillaged by the militar^^, and the 
printing materials demolished. I cannot speak from 
my own knowledge of its ability, never having seen a 
copy of the paper. It appears, however, that its 
managers appreciated the idea that "history was 
philosophy teaching by example ;" Dr. Madden, 
" after a careful perusal of its columns," informing us 
that " The grand object seems to have been, to keep 
the example and events of the French Revolution 
constantly before the eyes of the people." 



flit UJSriTED IRISHMEIT. 20l 

Samuel ^eilso'J, born September, 1761, at Balro- 
nej, in the connl"j of Down, was the son of a dissent- 
ing minister. He received a liberal education, and 
in his youth was remarkable for a bold, manly, and 
generous character. In 1785, having nmrried the 
daugliter of a wealthy merchant, he entered the 
woollen trade ; and in the succeeding seven years 
accumulated forty thousand dollars, a very fine for- 
tune at that period. He is generally looked upon as 
the originator of the society into which Tone breathed 
an actual being ; and was one of the most active, un- 
deviating, and sincere of the leaders of the Union. 
Tone speaks of him as distinguished for virtue, talent, 
and patriotism. With pen and tongue he devoted the 
energy and ability of both to exorcise sectionality 
from the breasts of Irishmen. He travelled through 
the T^Torth, composing the differences and healing the 
wounds of 23arty strife, and for this alone his memory 
ought to be ever green. From the first he was a re- 
publican, as indeed the northern men generally were. 
This is the more remarkable in contrast to the 
early leaders in Dublin, and accounts for the influ- 
ence of Tone among the former, whilst in Dublin, as 
he himself states, the club was scarcely formed before 
he was discovered to be so far ahead of them, that 
he lost all pretensions to influence in their measures.* 

Keleased from prison on the 22nd of February, 
1798, a proclamationf dated 22nd May was issued, 



* See Tone's Life. Washington Ed. Vo.. i. p. 55. 

t In the sane proclamation were also included Richard McCormick, John Cham- 

9* 



202 

offering £300 for his apprehension ; and while recon- 
noiteririg ISTewgate on the following day, with the 
intention of attacking it that night and rescuing his 
friend Lord Edward and others, he was recognized and 
captured after a most desperate straggle ; his clothes 
being torn off, and his body having npwards of fifty 
gashes where the soldiers cut and hacked hini. 
He was only saved by the number of his assailants, 
which numbered a whole file of soldiers.* 

His arrest took place on the day designed for 
the rising in the city, and a number of people who 
had collected to meet him, not knowing why he 
did not come, dispersed. On the 26th of June, true 
bills were found against Neilson, the brothers John 
and Henry Sheares, John McCann, William Michael 
Byrne and Oliver Bond.f Heavily chained, Neilson 
was brought into court, the jailer having thought it 
necessary to place him in " such irons as he would 
not think of putting on any two men." 

Being called on to plead, I^eilson in a stentorian 
voice replied — " 'No ! I have been robbed of every- 
thing ; I could not fee a counsel ; my property, every- 
thing, has been taken from me." He then retired, 
but immediately returning to the dock, exclaimed : 



bers, Ed'vrard Rattigan, John Corniicb, William Lawless,Thomas Trenor, and Michael 
Reynolds, for each of whom the same amount was offered. 

* See Grattan's Life and Times, by liis Son. Vol. IV. 

t The Sheares were executed on the 14th July, McCann on the 19th, and Byrne on 
the 28th. Bond was sentenced to death on the 23rd, but a negotiation having been 
entered into between the state prisoners and the crown, he was respited. He, how- 
ever, died suddenly in Newgate on the 6th September, having been "as well 
as ever" on the evening previous. Apoplexy was given out as the cause; much evi- 
dence having accumulated to prove "murder most foul." 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. ^03 

"For myself, I Lave nothing to say; I scorn your 
power, and despise that authority, that it shall ever 
be my pride to have opposed." Fortunately, the 
delay created by his refusal to engage counsel saved 
his life, as he was included in the negotiation with 
government, and was banislied. He died in Pough- 
keepsie, in the State of New York, on the 29tli Aug., 
1803, where a simple slab records the name and 
birthplace of one " who discharged all the duties of a 
husband, father, and a persecuted patriot." 

He was an able, fearless, and devoted friend of 
Freedom. He had all the bluntness and vigor of 
action and speech which characterize men who love 
and labor for one i^lea. He never has had full justice 
done him: and none deserve a fuller meed. His 
sacrifice was not less than that of any other man 
engaged in the struggle ; his sufferings much more 
than those of many. 

The first number of " The Press" was issued in 
Dublin, September 2Stli, 1797 f tlie last, March 3rd 
of the following year, running sixty-seven numbers ; 
besides two, which were suppressed by the govern- 
ment. The writers in it were, as fixr as known, 
Arthur O'Connor, Deane Swift (" Marcus") ; Thomas 
Addis Emmet (" Montanus") ; William Preston, 
a '* distinguished scholar of Trinity," and one of the 

* Dr. Madden is erroneous in stating that " ' The Press' made its first appearance 
on tlie 4'h October, 1797." There was no "Press" issued on tliat date; the paper 
came out on the Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays of each week, and the 4th Oct. 
did not fall on either of those days that year. Number 3, is dated Oct. 3rd, and 
number 4, Oct. 5th. 



201 'ninety-eight and 'fokty-eight. 

foimilers of the Royal Irisli AcacUniij ; William 
Sampson (supposed to be " Fortesque") ; Dr. Dren- 
nan, Eoger O'Connor, and other able men under the 
signatures of " Wm. Caxou," "an Irishman," " Sars- 
field," " Energetes," " Dion," " Scsevola," " Boling- 
broke," '' a Militia Officer," '' Yincent," and others. 
In the eleventh number there is a clever, though not 
remarkable piece of verse, entitled " The London 
Pride and Shamrock, a Fable," signed Trebor ; which 
Dr. Madden believes was written by Robert Emmet, 
the signature being i-ead backwards spelling his 
Christian name. Thomas Moore tells us that he 
wrote something for " The Press," and that it was 
included in the secret report of "the Committee of 
the House." His contributions were of no moment, 
however. Those papers which seemed to have 
created the most noise, and with some justice, were 
written by Deane Swift (" Marcus"), who is described 
by Barrington as " tall, thin and gentlemanly, but 
withal an unqualified reformer and revolutionist :" 
also, Addis Emmet's " Montanus " letters, and John 
Sheares' " Dion" letter to " The Author of Coercion" 
(Lord Clare), which, some rumor of its embryo exist- 
ence getting out, caused the seizure of the sixty- 
eighth number of the paper, when all ready for publi- 
cation. Thus, the sixty-seventh number was the last 
published ; but in a collection of the chief articles and 
letters, issued soon after " to fan," says Musgrave, 
" the seemingly smothered flame of rebellion," the 
sixty-eighth number is restored, as well as an intended 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 205 

Bixtj-iiiutli, being "The Appeal of the People of 
Ulster to their Couiitrjinen, and the empire at large."* 
The man of all others wlio carried a literary repu- 
tation out of the period, and whose lyrics are 
identiied with it, is Doctor William Drennan. As 
early as 1779 he had published his letters of " Orel- 
lana, the Irish Helot," which, to use Davis's phrase, 
were written with a " passionate vigor." In tliem 
he advocated a free Constitution, and made hiui- 
self famous. AVith Emmet, Eussell, Pullock (cele- 
brated as the author of the letters of " Owen Koe 
O'l^eil," against the United Irishmen, 1790-3), Whit- 
ley Stokes, and others, Drennan was a member of 
the literary club started in Dublin, by Tone, in 1790. 
With regard to literary empire, Tone says, Drennan 
and Pollock wei'e the Csesar and Pompey of the 
club, and soon manifested a dislike to each other. 
Drennan early joined the Union; wrote the test; 
many of their addresses in 1792 and 'i)3 ; and June 
25th, 1791, was prosecuted on the same charge as that 
brought against Rowan, in the preceding January, 
Curran defended both ; but in the case of Drennan a 
verdict of " Not Guilty " was rendered. He ^wrote 
in prose and poetry in " The Press," and his contribu- 
tions in the latter have survived as worthy monu- 
ments to the pen and patriotism of the author. Dazis 



* An American i-eprint is now before me: the title runs, " Extracts from the Press : 
a Newspaper published in the Capital of Ireland, during part of the years 1797 and 
1798. Including numbers sixty-eight and sixty-nine, which were suppressed by order 
of the Irish Government, before the usual time of publication. Philadelphia : 
prinfcud by William Duane, Aurora Office, 1802." 



206 

pajs him a liigli tribute, wlien lie says that his let- 
ters to Pitt against the Union, rank with the pam- 
phlets of Goold, Grattan, Taafe, and Biishe. From 
1808 to 1814 he conducted, with two other gentle- 
men, the "Belfast Magazine;" ai.^d died, aged sixty- 
three, on the 5th of February, 1820. His most 
famous poem is " Erin," in which he first names his 
country the " Emerald Isle." In his " Wake of 
William Orr," there is a direct energy and passion, 
and a simplicity of diction, almost sublime. Every 
line is a sermon, every stanza a history. There are 
no " w^omen's cries " in this death-chant. It is a 
sorrow^ that has no tears ; and yet we caimot well 
call it a sorrow, for there is more indignation than 
lamentation in it. It is an ode to the living, more 
than for the dead, yet neither arc forgot. The living 
are made to remember that a lanient is needed for 
them more than for the dead. That in fact they are 
dead; and in this does its great power exist, and to 
this was its immense effect at the time due. It suited 
its time, consequently must live with it. 

It is not my purpose to go through" the list. I 
have given you, reader, types of the men who made 
the struggle famous. Lord Edward and Hope, the 
peer and the peasant ; Tone and Esmonde, and 
McCracken and Monroe ; the professions and the 
mercantile class ; Russell and MoUoy, the military and 
militia officers, represent the general body of United 
Irishmen, including all religions. I have illustrated 
the period, too, with the actions of men not so widely 
known or frequently spoken of, with one or two 



THE UNITED IKISHMEN. 207 

exceptions, as Addis Emmet, Arthur O'Connor, 
Dr. McNevin, Sampson, and others. Without dero- 
gating from the justly great repntations of these 
men, it is but truth to say, that though some of them 
composed the chief Directory, they neither founded 
nor were the actual leaders of the movement. United 
Irishism commenced in Ulster, and from that pro- 
vince I have chiefly taken my representatives of 
it. The principal f ghting men were from the North, 
from Wexford, and Ivildare, and Wicklow. As it has 
been my object to exhibit the active spirit of the 
time, I have jjnncipally followed the men of those 
localities. 

It but remains here to glance at the young hero 
who worthily carried the faith of '98 to the scaffold 
of 1803. 

Robert Em met was born in Dublin, in the memorable 
year 1782. He was the youngest brother of Thomas 
Addis Emmet, an abler man than whom Wolfe Tone 
left not behind him. Eloquent, practical and clear- 
sighted, the latter possessed all those gifts which form 
the great statesman of a free country, but his nature 
could never bend or accommodate itself to the petty 
meannesses which distinguish those who win that title 
by- inventing chains for a weak state. Highly educa- 
ted, deeply versed in legal science, with a philosophic 
composure, and reason based on humanity, a grasping 
intellect and a pure heart — Thomas Addis Emmet 
was precisely such a man as might — had not many 
occurrences combined against the party to which he 
belonged — have led the Irish Revolution to a success- 



20S 'jSriNETY-EIGHT AND 'fORTT-EIGHT. 

fill issue. Ill 1797, lie was decidedly the ablest, 
tliougli not the leading naan, in Ireland. 

How well his various attainments were appreciated 
by this country, to which he came as an exile, con- 
tributing to her the richness of his manhood in return 
for the shelter ensured him, may be seen by the testi- 
mony raised to his memory and his merits in the 
judicial halls of the chief city of these American 
States ; and by the monument which^ — near that 
raised to the valor of his illustrious countryman, 
and defender of American liberty. General Richard 
Montgomery, under the portico of Saint Paul's — first 
meets the eye of the stranger as he wanders from the 
Battery up one of tlie most populous and opulent 
thoroughfares in the w^oiid. It is at once a high testi- 
mony of American recognition to the European out- 
cast, and a guide to all worthy of American citizenship. 

A voice speaks from the cold marble. There is a 
sermon in that stone. A sermon that preaches straight 
to the hearts of men. It says : Here Freedom has 
a home — here truth and genius are the only divine 
rights acknowledojed under God. Come and do 
likewise as this dust has done, and make yourself 
immortal. 

The youngest brother of that man was well w^orthy 
of the name which his brother bore with honor, and 
which he, with enthusiasm almost divine, has made 
more famous by writing it on the scaffold with the 
blood of martyrdom. 

The genius, heroism, and above all the youth of 
Robert Emmet must ever render his name one of deep 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 



interest to those whose anxious ejes gleam over the 
history of Freedom, or weep over the pages devoted 
to the record of hor bitter struggles, and her martjr- 
ologj. Aye, many lighter hearts and more careless 
eyes — hearts and eyes for whom the page of history 
mayhap will have no allurement, will be tenderly 
betrayed into tears, over the incidents of his closing 
history, so sorrowfully beautiful, and so touchingly 
given in Washington Irving's sketch of " the Broken 
Heart." 

Robert Emmet was fashioned by nature to be a 
great man. He possessed all the qualities that furnish 
forth a stirring orator, with intellect to guide culture, 
sympathetic feelings to sway the finer chords of the 
heart, enthusiasm to stir up the noblest passions, 
energy to labor, and determination capable of mould- 
ing incessant action, or commanding or directing the 
movements of others in a revolutionary strug- 
gle. 

At the age of sixteen he entered Trinity College, 
and by his rare endowments, and the nobility of his 
nature, soon gained the respect and love of his fellow 
students, and a reputation which is still cherished as 
a holy tradition within those old walls. 

Some of these college traditions occasionally leap 
out of their old boundaries, and come to us all the 
purer from the time elapsed since the action which 
bred them, as the spring is all the purer trom the 
density of the rock through which it has had to toil. 
In Moore's life we catch a glimpse of Emmet as 
he was in those davs, when liis abilities overwhelmed 



210 

in their brilliancy eveij feeling tliat envy might 
suggest. 

In their debating society of the college, the subject 
for discussion arose — " Whether an aristocracy or 
democracy was most favorable to the advancement 
of science and literature." Emmet took the latter 
point of view, and in its defence, says Moore, " the 
power of his eloquence was wonderful." "After 
a brief review," he continues, " of the great republics 
of antiquity, showing how much they had all done for 
the advancement of literature and arts, he hastened, 
lastly, to the grand and perilous example of the 
young Republic of France ; and referring to the story 
of Caesar, carrying with him across the river only his 
sword and his Commentaries, he said, ' Thus France 
at this time swims through a sea of blood, but while 
in one hand she wields the sword against her aggres- 
sors, with the other she upholds the interests of litera- 
ture uncontaminated by the bloody tide through 
which she struggles.' " 

Of another speech on the question — " Whether a 
soldier was bound on all occasions to obey the orders 
of his commanding officer" — Moore gives us his 
reminiscence thus : " Emmet, after refuting the 
notion as degrading to human nature, imagined the 
case of a soldier who, having thus blindly fought in 
the ranks of the oppressor had fallen in the combat, 
and then most powerfully described him as rushing, 
after death, into the presence of his Creator, and 
exclaiming in the agony of remorse, while he holds 
forthi his swoid, reeking still with the blood of the 



THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 211 

Oppressed and innocent, ' Oli God ! I know not wliy 
I have done this.' " 

And again — for these recollections are too precious 
that we should lose any of them — here is a truly 
repubhcan doctrine well expressed, " When a j^eople, 
advancing rapidly in civilization, and the knowledge 
of their rights, look back after a long lapse of time, 
and perceive how far the spirit of the then govern- 
ment has lagged behind them ; what then, I ask, 
is to be done by them in such a case ? What, but to 
pull the government up to the people ?" 

These extracts are pages from the history of his 
mind. They show how firmly seated were those opi- 
nions for which he was destined to shed his blood. 
Impressed on him in early youth, as well by the 
schoolmaster under whom lie was placed — a Kev. Mr. 
Lewis, who, though a Protestant minister, was dia- 
metrically opposed to the persecution of his Catholic 
brethren, and failed not to instill into the mind of his 
young charge those doctrines which he held himself 
— as well as the example of Brother Addis — these 
ideas of democracy, toleration, and republicanism 
grew into his mind with his growth. Everything he 
read or studied was looked on as an evidence for or 
against those cherished principles. 

In the Historical Society, notwithstanding that the 
utmost care was taken to exclude j^olitical topics, 
especially anything anxl everything which touched 
on those questions of the day, it was always easy 
for Emmet, by a digression or illustration, to bring 
Ireland vividly before them. " So exciting and pow- 



212 



erful," — we again quote Moore, who was an eye-wit- 
ness of tlieir effect — " in this respect were the 
speeches of Emmet, and so little were the most dis- 
tinguished speakers among our opponents able to 
cope with his eloquence, that the Board at length 
actually thought it right to send among us, a num of 
advanced staiiding in the University, and belonging 
to a former race of good speakers in the society, in 
order that he might answer the speeches of Emmet, 
and endeavor to obviate what they considered the 
mischievous impressions produced by them." 

During the st6rmy period of 1798, young Emmet 
had drawn upon himself the malignant vigilance of 
the govej-nment, as well, no doubt, by his family con- 
nections as his democratic rejDutation in college; which 
led to his and others being examined by Lord Clare 
— then vice-chancellor of the University — on a charge 
of spreading the doctrines of the United Irish Society 
within its sacred walls. In the repoi-t of the secret 
committee of the Irish House of Lords, this exten- 
sion of the conspiracy to the College is termed " A 
desperate project of the same faction to corrupt the 
youth of the country by introducing tlieir organized 
system of treason into the University." 

For these reasons, it was fonnd prudent that he 
should reside abroad during the suspension of the 
habeas corpus act. He fled to the continent, and 
after some time, proceeded to Paris, with the inten- 
tion of meeting some of the escaped chiefs of the 
preceding insurrection. With them he held consul- 
tation, and the scheme of another revolution was 



THE UNITED IRiSlIMEj^. gig 

set on foot. JSTapoleon favored the project: ana 
Emmet was assigned tlie dii'ectorsliip of the fresh 
attempt for the liberties of the poor old land. 

He returned to Dublin on the restoration of the 
habeas corpus act, but from prudential motives, and 
the more effectively to further his objects, lived in 
privacy at Harold's Cross, a village some two miles 
from the city, and on the road to the Dublin Moun- 
tains. Here he held his meetings with the men who 
still had hope in the cause. Here, from the golden- 
fountain of his eloquence, he poured into them new 
life and vigor, and with the force of his impetuous 
spirit, stirred the slumbering fire in their souls. He 
sent agents to various parts of the country, while he 
superintended the preparations in the city himself, 
which was to light the entire country anew. 

During the first four months of his labor nothing 
transpired to thwart ^le growth of the conspiracy, 
or endanger them in their preparations. All his 
portion of £2,500 he sacrificed to his enthusiasm in 
the national cause. His amiability and force of 
character won all who met him. 

Speaking of the soldiery in contradistinction to the 
people, he said truly that 

" A man does not necessarily acquire either superior courage 
or address from the color of his coat, and a soldier with a fixed 
bayonet has no advantage over a fierce peasant with a well- 
tempered pike. AhTiost every victory of modern times has been 
gained by coming to close action, and that mode, to which a 
well-regulated army is indebted for success, is as available to a 
determined band of freemen as to any hired troops in Europe." 



21i 'ninety-eight and 

And again: 

*'As different animals have different modes of attack and 
defence, an insurgent army has a disciphne of its own, recom- 
mended by reason, and sanctioned by experience. With walled 
towns and close garrisons they have nothing to do ; the hills of 
the country serve them as places of retreat ; marshes, rivers, 
and lakes are their best bastions, while defiles afford them 
opportunities of attack, and woods and valleys serve them as 
places, of ambush. The face of nature solicits the oppressed 
to regain their freedom ; and certainly, no country on the globe 
has so many invitations to revolt as our own." 

In snch a manner, and by such striking argu- 
ments did he overpower the minds, and disperse the 
timidity, of his hearers. The principles which 
Emmet held were exactly the same as those held by 
Wolfe Tone. Like Tone, too, his energy was inex- 
haustibly great; and I believe that no man who 
reads the life of Emmet will fail to be struck with 
the irrepressible vigor with which he carried on his 
preparations ; now planning, now superintending his 
various depots and the manufacture of weapons. In 
one of these places he slept on a mattress on the floor, 
that he might be always present to oversee what was 
going on, to animate the workmen, or meet any emer- 
gency that might arise to demand his presence and 
example. 

His plot had been so adroitly managed, and the 
appearance of quiet so undisturbed in the city, that it 
was difficult to make the authorities believe that such 
a thing was in being, until on the 1-Ith of July, the 
anniversary of the French Revolution, when bonfires 



l^ilE UNITED IRISHMEN. ^15 

were lighted in memory of tliat event, and people, 
as if imbued with its spirit, formed into groups in 
the streets and joined the festivity. 

On the 16th, the accidental blowing up of the 
powder depot, in Patrick street, further awakened 
the anxiety of the authorities. For the next seven 
days Emmet was scarcely out of the depot in Mar- 
shalsea Lane hurrying on preparations. In a rear 
house were about a dozen men at work, engaged in 
making cartridges, casting bullets, fabricating rock- 
ets, and forging and fashioning pike-heads. As an 
evidence of the earnestness with which he toiled and 
instilled life and purpose into those about him, we 
find his magazine to be rather formidable ; comprising 
451bs of cannon powder, in bundles — eleven boxes of 
fine powder — one hundred bottles filled with powder, 
enveloped with musket balls, and covered with can- 
vas — two hundred and forty-six hand grenades, 
formed of ink-bottles, filled with powder, encircled 
with buck-shot — sixty-two thousand rounds of mus- 
ket ball cartridges — three bushels of musket balls — a 
quantity of tow mixed with tar and gunpowder, and 
other combustible matter, for throwing against wood- 
work, which, when ignited would cause an instanta- 
neous conflagration ; sky-rockets and other signals, 
&c., and false beams filled with combustibles, with 
not less than eight thousand pikes.* 

On the 23d July, 1803, the projected rising took 
place — but, alas ! the issue is too well known here 

* Madden's Life, p. 117. 



210 ^J^INETY-EIGHT AND ^FOKTY-EIGHT. 

to need recounting. It is the man we have to look 
at. 

After the discomfiture of the insurgents, Emmet 
escaped to the mountains, where he was met by seve- 
ral leaders in tlie conspiracy to discuss and deter- 
mine future plans of operations. But the dream of 
the enthusiast was dissolved. He could not believe 
the reiteration of such sweeping promises of aid as 
left him in the position he was. He argued that as 
the government did not know their real state, it was 
best to remain still, and give the authorities a false 
notion of security, in order that they (the revolution- 
ists) might improve on a future opportunity. " Be 
cautious, be silent," he said, " and do not afford 
our enemies any ground for either tyranny or suspi 
cion ; but, above all, never forget that you are 
United Irishmen, sworn to promote the liberty of 
your country by all means in your power." 

After eluding the government for some time, he 
was arrested at Harold's Cross. An 'opportunity 
offered for his escope, but was put off by him for a 
few days — 

" Excuse my obstinacy, but there is one to whom 
I must bid an eternal farewell, before the terrors of 
government shall force me into exile." 

This one was Sarah Curran, the daughter of the 
celebrated orator and advocate. 

Emmet was tried and convicted, on the 19th of 
September, and luxnged on a temporary scaffold 
erected in Thomas street, nearly opposite St. Cathe- 
rine's Church, the next day. 



tSe united IRISH:^rEN". SlY 

His blood streaming through the open planks 
fell upon the pavement, where the dogs lapped it 
up. 

At the suggestion of a woman, the sentinels break 
in upon the repast of the brutes and hunt them off; 
while some dumb enthusiast, " prowling about the 
scaifold of his chief, seizes the opportunity, while the 
sentinel's back is turned, deftlj saps his kerchief in 
the blood, nervously thrusts it in his bosom, and 
huddles off as though his whole being was rolled 
]'Ound the spotted rag. 

Thus died Robert Emmet. 

His speech in the dock is familiar through the 
school books of America. One, the closing passage, 
I shall alone intrude on : 

" I have but one request to ask at my departure from this 
world : it is the cliarity of its silence. Let no man write my 
epita}:»li ; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindi- 
cate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let 
them rest in obscurity and peace, my memory be left in obli- 
vion, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until otlier men can do 
justice to my character. When my country takes her place 
among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my 
epitaph be written. I have done."* 

* The names of the parties engaged in Emmet's conspiracy, were : — Thomaa 
Russell, Belfast; John Allen, Philip Long, Dublin, Thomas Wylde, John Hevey, 
Denis Lambert Redmond, and Nicholas Stafford, of Dublin ; Ilenry Wm. Hamilton, 
of Enniskillen ; William Dowdall, of Miillingar; M. Byrne and Nicholas Gray, of 
Wexford, the latter Bagnal Harvey's aide-de-camp at New Ross ; Colonel Lumm, 
Carthy, Thomas Trenahan, Thomas Frayne, and Michael Quigley, of Co. Kildare; 
Thomas Brangan, of Irishtown ; Alliburn, of Kilmacud, and Felix Rourke of 
Rathcoole, Co. Dublin ; James Hope of Templepatri^^k; Bernard Duggan of Tyrone; 
Edwai'd Kearney. Thomas Maxwell Roche, Owen Kirwan, James Byrne, John 

10 



218 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 



Beggs, John Killen, John McCann^ Joseph Doran, Thomas Donclly^ Lawrence 
Begley, Nicliolas Tyrrdl., 2Iichael Kelly, John Hays, Henry Eawley, John 
Mcintosh, Patrick Maguire, Martin Bourke, Thomas Keenan, Malachy Delany, 
and the famous Michael Dwyer of Wicklow. Those printed in italics were hanged. 
Allen carved his way to a colonelcy and Brangan to a captaincy in the French ser- 
vice. Plowden (Vol. I., p. 213, Hist, since the Union), states that Denis Lambert 
Redmond, coal- factor, of 14 Coal Quay, Dublin, was respited. This is incorrect. 
Redmond was brouglit to trial October 5th, 1S03, and executed the following day 
on the Coal Quay. See Ridgeway's Report of State Trials of ISoS. A young man . 
named Walter Clare, who was arrested, tried, and found guilty, was respited. 



B A R N"- P L TJ X K E T 



t.i 



BAKON PLUNKET. 321 



THE DEATH OF BAEOK PLUNKET. 



"Let us not ask of history, if man on the whole be yet become more purely 
moral." — J. Gottlieb Fichte. 



February, 1852 : — -ximid tlie trembling but clamo- 
rous jargon of monarchies, the flashing and crashing of 
Tnrkish cimeter and Muscovite lances on the Danube ; 
the rumbling echoes of the massacre at Sincpe, that, 
throbbing between the hills of Greece, and the 
Balkan uud Carpathian Mor nti *n.;^ reddened the 
Black Sea, startled from their ancient rest the 
classic gods of Crete and Ithaca, Euboea and Lesbos, 
the Cyclades and Scfo : thundered new and dire 
revelations to the soil of Patmos, which John the 
Prophet may not recognize in Heaven ; and is yet 
flinging restlessly through the cavernous hills of 
Em'ope — amid this clang and anger of massacre and 
war, and the more useless clangor of diplomacy, 
there is a faint, low sound of death, distinct from all 
the rest, wafted to us over the Atlantic. 

It cometh from the west of Europe ; from that isle 
called Ireland. Its monition is that of Death in Life, 
and that sound amid which it is convoyed is o^ I-lfe in 
Death. The former to the latter is, in its death-chill, 



222 



art an icicle to an iceberg, a mere frozen diop to a 
pyramid of water, a cataract entranced in massive 
^•allor and awe-inspiring eloquence. 

It is a low, faint sound, as when a sickly infant 
uies, for he wliose death is feebly chronicled, had 
g«)ne back into his infantage, from which originally 
it were well, indeed, he had never issued forth. Yet 
i*" was the death-note of a voice that once shook 
senates, and sent indignation coursing through the 
souls of men, and held all eyes and ears as ready 
rponsors for the thoughts that he, among a crowd of 
gifted, had tlu gift to utter. Aye, that tongue which 
cjuld scarcely articulate a farewell to Life, spoke out 
its " Good-morrow " in so brave and bold a tone that 
generous echoes rose in every bosom to bid its owner 
\ 'elcome. But he tired his welcome out by half a 
century, and in so doing, betrayed the trust that God 
ajid his country had vouchsafed unto him; the 
genius, the eloquence, entrusted to him by the one ; 
the confidence, the hope, by the other. And the 
Lian who, in 1800, during the memorable debate on 
tlje Union of Ireland with England, stood up in the 
Irish Senate, and said : " For my part, I will I'esist 
i' (the Union) to the last gasp of my existence, and 
with the last drop of my blood ; and when I feel the 
h.>ur of my dissolution approaching, I will, like the 
f'Uher of Hannibal, take my children to the altar, 
and swear them to eternal hostility against the inva- 
G3rs of their country's freedom." The man who 
Raid this died " unanointed, unannealed," with the 
blessing of any true fellow-countryman ; for wdiatso- 



BAEON PLUNKET. 223 

ever Irisliman that is true to him, lappeth up the 
blood of Emmet as the dogs did beneath his scaffold. 

Gather his children around the altar of his coun- 
try's wrong? Swear them to eternal hostility to the 
invaders of his country's freedom? Say, rather, that 
he devoured these offspring words, these glorious 
images of his brain, to qualify him for patronage 
and place, as Saturn devoured his own male cliil- 
dren to grasp the Titans' power. Aye, it is painful 
— perhaps, could we brook to admit it, humiliating, 
to utter such words of one, of whose intellect and 
eloquence, even we Irishmen well might be proud. 
We would not, if we could, pronounce them, nor could 
we, if we would, pronounce against him stronger than 
have his own actions. We do not judge him. He 
has long since sentenced himself, and this *' last gasp 
of his existence," which cometh over the wintry 
troubles of the ocean, but awakes us to the fact, and 
tells us, yet again, how forcibly it plays the liar to 
almost his first public breath. "^ 

William Conyngham Plunket lived fifty years too 
long. He should have died with the Irish Parlia- 
ment, wdiose inviolability he so vehemently defended. 
He should have died then in the body as he did in 
the soul. He would have taken a 23ure rejDutation 
with him, and have saved us from alluding to the 
debasement placed to his account on the page of his- 
tory, from that date to the 4th of January, 1854 ; 
when, imbecile in body and in mincl, with a softened 
brain, an extinguished intellect, he rolled, lightless 
and cheerless, from the English pension list into the 



224: 'ninety- EIGHT AND 'fORTY-EIGIIT. 

grave. Aye, it comes to this — lie sold liis country to 
]3urchase tlie tomb of a peer, and being in it, liath no 
more air than a beggar. 

Was the name of William Conyngham Plunket, 
" so stated in the bond " of the Legislative Union, 
that when Ireland had lost her freedom, he, too, 
should annex himself to England ? 

His inconsistency when he became a dabbler in 
the affairs of the " United Kingdom," in taking office 
under the Whigs and Tories, was less remarkable 
than his making fiery speeches against the govern- 
ment, and threatening " separation " in 1800, and 
in discharoina: a virulent and uncalled-for oration 
against Robert Emmet in 1803, only by the less 
remarkable nature of the occurrences in which he 
was an actor. 

Great falsity requires great fortitude to support it; 
and we mio;ht be somewhat startled at Mr. Plunket's 
courage in belying his anti-union speeches by his 
brutal exposition at the trial of Emmet, but that we 
are well aware under what a prospective shelter of 
government emolument and ease the actors on such 
occasions rest. The government encourages such 
praiseworthy bravery, especially on the part of a 
" patriot," and never fails to reward with a more 
ihan Irish generosity the Irish who exhibit it. 
Words come as easy to the diction-monger for that 
occasion as for this, and it recks little to a person of 
Plunket's mould, whether a nation is to lose its riglits 
to-daj, or its noblest soul, its Emmet, to-morrow, 
provided he is the popular man with the former, or 



BARON PLrNKET. 225 

the j)aid man against the latter. Siicli a nature 
makes emohiment from one as from the other. The 
means may be different, and to most people, involve 
a serious distinction, but the end, which is eveiy- 
thing, is the same. 

Phmket played a bokl game, and he was deter- 
mined he would play it. It was William Conyng- 
ham Plunket, Barrister-at-law, but ex-Member of 
Parliament of famous anti-union memory, against 
his psist life, his associates, and all gamblers in ambi- 
tion : government adoption being the stakes. 

It would appear that the very existence of Plunket 
hung more upon the trial of Emmet, than did that 
of the prisoner, so determined was he to prove his 
loyalty to the crown, and his utter abhorrence and 
condemnation of " the centre, the life, blood, and 
soul of this atrocious conspiracy " at the bar. We 
can conceive of nothing more brutal than the desire 
to make this speech when its delivery was unneces- 
sary ; nor of anything more cold-blooded, audacious, 
and thoroughly abandoned than it when spoken. 

It was brutal in its conception; unnecessary, as 
the prisoner called no witnesses and made no defence: 
cold-blooded, that it attacked the motives of the pure, 
unspotted soal who confronted him ; audacious, that 
it so turned into ridicule his own previous parlia- 
mentary career ; and abandoned for these several 
reasons. 

It printed twelve pages of the report, while the 
Attorney-General's speech on opening the indict- 
ment occupied but nine. So desirous was he of 

10- 



226 



" defending liis position " on the occasion, that lie 
out-prosecuted tlie Chief Prosecutor of Irehmd. 
The speech of the one, "in which," savs Dr. Madden,^ 
" the establislnuent of the prisoner's guilt seeined 
not to be a matter of more importance than the 
defence of the government from the appearance of a 
surprisal," has sunk into comparative oblivion, whi- 
ther Plunket's would have gone but that it wraps 
him round like the swathing of an Egyptian mummy, 
and preserves his infamy intact. 

."The learned gentleman," says Emmet's biogra- 
pher, "commented on the evidence with extraordi- 
nary skill and precision, and brought home, at every 
sentence of it, guilt enough to have convicted twenty 
men, in the aw^ful situation of the prisoner." In 
almost the same words Barrington refers to the 
speech made three years previous on the other side 
of the question by Plunket He r-e!ers to it as " the 
ablest speech ever heard by any n-iember in that 
Parliament. ^ ^ ^ His language was irresistible. 
It was perfect in eloquence and unanswerable in rea- 
soning. ^ ^ -^ It was of great weight, and proved 
the eloquence, the sincerity, and the fortitude of the 
speaker.f 

"I do not hesitate to declare," silid Plunket, in a 
speech of great enthusiasm and brilliant invective, in 
1800, " I do not hesitate to declare, that if the mad- 
ness of the revolutionist should tell me, ' You must 
sacrifice British connexion,' I would adhere to that 

* Life and Times of Robert Emmet, pp. 224, 234. 
t Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, p. 4U4. 



BARON PLUNKET. 227 

connexion in preference to tlie independence of my 
country ; but I have as little hesitation in saying, 
that if the wanton ambition of a minister should 
assault the freedom of Ireland, and compel me to 
the alternative, I would fling the connexion to the 
winds, and I would clasp the independence of my 
country to my heart." He '' hesitated " just as little 
in 1803, " to talk of the frantic desperation of the 
plan of any man who speculates upon the dissolution 
of that empire, whose glory and whose happiness 
depends upon its indissoluble connexion."* 

" I warn the ministers of this country against per- 
severing in their present system. Let them not pro- 
ceed to offer violence. to the settled principles, or to 
shake the settled loyalty of the country," said he. in 
1800. f And when both the system, princi]3les, and 
"loyalty " of the country had been violently unset- 
tled, we find his evil heart exuding opinions in viru- 
lent anathema of Emmet and his associates thus, 
'' They forget to tell the people whom they address, 
that they have been enjoying the benefit of equal 
laws, by which the property, the person, and consti- 
tutional rights and privileges of every man were 
abundantly protected." 

In 1800 : " Let them (the ministers) not persist in 
the wicked and desperate doctrine," said he, " wdiich 
places British connexion in contradistinction to Irish 
Freedom ;" and when these " desperate doctrines " 
had been persisted in, and brought the " connexion 

* Speech in Prosecution of Emmet. 

t Speech in a debate on the Union, Jan. 16, 1800. Parliamentary Debates, 



228 



in conlmdistiDction to Irish Freedom ;'' lie said, "tliej 
(the revolutionists) have not pointed out a single 
instance of oppression. -^ * * * AYhat is it 
that anj' rational freedom could expect, and that this 
country were not fully and amph' in the possession 
ofT' 

In 1800, said he, *' If it should come " (his '' alter- 
native*' of an insurrection), "be the guilt of it on the 
heads of those who make it necessary^ And, in 
1803, " A well-judging mind and a human heart 
would pause awhile, and stop upon the brink of his 
purpose, before he would hazard tlie peace of his 
country, by resorting to force for the establishment 
of his system." 

These parallel passages are not more startlingly 
conclusive of the speaker's treachery, than the pas- 
sage in which he alludes to the position of Emmet, 
is brutally suggestive of his own double nature. He 
seems to be fully aware that as he stings the patriot 
to the very foot of the scaffold, he is creating an 
official future for himself, and purchasing the yet 
unseen coronet for his brow, by " warning his deluded 
countrymen from persevering in the schemes " which 
he had anticipated the prisoner in promulgating. 
" When the prisoner reflected," said he, " that he 
had stooped from the honorable situation, in which 
his birth, talents, and education placed him, to 
debauch the minds of the lower orders of ignorant 
men, with the phantoms of liberty and equality, he 
must feel that it was an unworthy use of his talents. 
* * ■» ^ It was not for him (Mr. Phmket) to say, 



BAROK PLUKKET. M^3 

wliat were the limits of the mere) of God, what a 
sincere repentence of those crimes might eifect ; but 
he did say, that if this unfortunate joung gentleman 
retained any of the seeds of humanity in his heart, 
or possessed any of those qualities which a virtuous 
education, in a libe^-al seminary, must have planted 
in his bosom, he will make atonement to his God and 
his country, by employing whatever time remains to 
liim, in warning his deluded countrymen from perse- 
verin^r in their schemes." He desio-nated the follow- 
ers of Emmet as " a blood-thirsty crew," incapable 
of listening to reason, or of '• obtaining rational free- 
dom, if such were wanting." " They call upon God 
to prosper their cause, as it is just," he concluded, 
" but as it is atrocious, wicked, and abominable, 1 
most devoutly invoke that God to confound and over- 
whelm it." 

, Let us again contrast this with another extract 
from a speech, from which we have already drawn 
many figurative swords, and much platform patriot- 
ism. It is from the Hannibal Oration in the Irish 
Commons, and is such a damning " better-half" of 
the foregoing passage of advice to Robert Emmet, 
that we cannot retrain from quoting it : — • 

" I should be proud," said Mr. Plunket, " to think my name 
should be handed down to posterity, in the same roll with those 
disinterested patriots who successfully resisted the enemies of 
their country — successfully I trust it will be. In all events, I 
have my exceeding great reward. I shall bear in my heart the 
consciousness of having done my duty ; and in the liour of 
death, I shall not be haunted by the reflection of having basely 



230 



Rolfl, or meanly abandoned the liberties of my native land. Can 
every man who gives his vote this night on the other side, lay 
his hand upon his heart and make the same declaration ? I 
hope so ; it will be well for his own peace. The indignation 
and abhorrence of his countrymen will not accompany him 
through life, and the curses of his children will not follow him 
to his grave." 

And what is all this value for now ? what was it 
worth three years after ? 

Oh, iinmaciilate king's counsel, most pious crown- 
prosecutor, rebaptized loyalist! What? What, 
indeed, if it is not and was not just current commo- 
dity for the indignation, abhorrence", and curses, 
which, as you state, should follow the forsaker of his 
country's freedom to the grave. Extracting that 
passage into one of his works,^ Charles Phillips says, 
" Let us oidy fancy with what a kindling eye, and 
burning cheek, and throbbing heart, young Emmet 
must have bent over such a page as this." And 
Emmet himself is reported to have said in his speech 
in the dock, alluding to his prosecutor, " He it was 
from whose lips I first imbibed those principles and 
doctrines, which now, by their effects, drag me to 
my grave." Some discussion has been raised in 
doubt of Ennnet's using these words. It matters 
little as the fact is inviolable. If he did not, he 
could have spoken them. Their truth is worthy of 
him. 

Can any impartial mind ponder on such utterances 

* Curran and his Contemporariea. 



BAEON PLUNKET. 231 

without sliuclderiiig over their foul malignity and 
traitorous cant. Some men have attempted to 
defend the position of Plunket on the trial of Emmet; 
but they were men who in themselves imitated all 
the faults of Plunket's career, and thereby com- 
pletely obscured what virtues they might originally 
have possessed. Men they were, like Richard Lalor 
Shell and Charles Phillips, both of whom found in 
the English treasury much more logical reasons for 
so doing, than could be afforded in the national 
oratory of either. All the sparks that fell from the 
metaphorical fire of Phillips' eloquence, are hid 
beneath the pile of ashes heaped on them by his 
subsequent career. The rainbow beauty of Sheil's 
more brilliant and purely oratorical visionings, is but 
a damp, cold mist. The sun that toiled aslant 
through it, and blended its light with the melody of 
the fountain, sank in a red glare of splendor behind 
those ever-looming hills of British influence and 
place; the fount still played, when it could not help 
itself, but never again did the natural light of heaven 
beget jewels in the spray. 

It is but justice to Shell to say, that his Sketch of 
" Lord Plunket " was written and appeared in 1822, 
long before he had subsided into an English member 
of Parliament, but also before he joined O'Connell 
in xhe then great national movement which took 
place in 1823. In his defence, he thinks it " quite 
natural and laudable " for Mr. Plunket, " that he 
should have seized the opportunity of reprobating, in 
the most emphatic terms, the visionary projects of 



232 



revolution that still prevailed." On what did Mn 
Shell base his ^conclusion as to Plunket's " quite 
natural" reprobation of revolution? Certainly not 
on the Anti-Union Speeches. What then ? 

Plunket's own avowal, made in an affidavit on 
J^ovember 23d, 1811, is to the effect that " he was 
then of opinion that it would be of some service to 
the public that this deponent should avail himself of 
the public opportunity of speaking to the evidence in 
said trial, by pointing out the foll}^ and wildness, as 
well as the wickedness of the treasonable conspi- 
racy."* Tiiough Phillips defended him, lie believed 
it to have been " a very unnecessary speech, as 
Emmet scarcely denied his guilt;" but ungenerously 
adds, after a few sentences, " undoubtedly, in its 
ardor and its ability, there was nothing left to the 
government to desire." Another laudatory biogra- 
pher of Plunketf is forced to condemn the "eager 
zeal" that — notwitl^standing both the Attorney and 
Solicitor Generals had declined making any remark 
— " assailed the sad enthusiast in the hour of his 
deepest suffering, on a theme of invective which 
might have been well spared." 

This speech, which has become famous by being 
so infamous, was made on the 19th September, 1803. 
Two months afterwards, on the ITth JSTovember, the 
speaker was gazetted as Solicitor-General; was made, 
in fact, that official whose duty he usurped on the trial. 
Any soul that was in him died then, and his body 

* Appendix to Life and Times of Eminet. 
+ Dublin University Magazine, March, 1840. 



BARON^ 'pLUNKET. 23o 

lived on, and, in turn, became the tool of Eng 
land. 

"Was this his " alternative " against the " wanton 
ambition of a minister?" Was this tlie logician's 
resistance to the *' last drop of his blood ?" Was this 
the example of Hamilcar Plnnket, as Cobbet scof- 
fingly called him, "to his young Ilannibalsf Or 
did he look upon the arguments of Lord Castlereagh 
as " the madness of the revolutionist," and seal his 
connexion with England " in preference to the inde- 
pendence of his own country," to defeat, in a self-con- 
ciliatory manner, the schemes of that potent villain ? 

Was it so ? 

Or, was it that his brilliant intellect, rendered keen 
by cultivation, was but the jackal to his desires, and 
hunted up his prey with ingenious scent and nimble- 
footed invective, to satiate them? Was it that the 
saturnine temperament, which years brought promi- 
nently to the surface of his character, was padded 
over with youthful flesh, and lay embedded there, 
living, as a toad lives in a rock, to prove that nature 
was convulsed when it was first enclosed within its 
stony heart? Was it that he longed to flash that 
satire at a people, with which he could so ably demo- 
lish an individual? Was it that this man, who 
became famous for disconcerting and breaking up 
the arguments of Saint George Daly, during the 
Union Debate in the House of Commons, by a look, 
a " curled sneer," aspired to look down the Irish 
nation ? To each of these queries might be answered 
" doubtless." 



234 'ninety-eight and 

Clasp the independence of his country to his heart! 
Ah, he should have said, in his jpocket ! for it is hut 
too evident, that from that receptacle his impulses 
became logically enthusiastic. Sheil tells us that 
Plunket's aristocratic leaning ever prevented him 
from becoming a " man of the people " — that in all 
matters between the people and the State, he sided 
with the latter. " He thought for the people, and 
not loith them," says Sheil. But his history, which 
is broadly written, shows that he thought for himself^ 
and with nobody else on the subject. 

The chief points of his complete career may be 
embraced in a paragraph, thus : 

Born at Fermanagh, in 1765, he graduated at Trinity 
College, adopted the profession of the law, and was 
called to the bar in 1788 ; was introduced, through 
Charlemont, into the Irish Parliament, and won a 
foremost rank the same year by oj^posiiig the Union. 
In 1803, he appeared as one of the Crown counsel 
at the trial of Robert Emmet, and also against all the 
rest of the patriots, with the exception of some four, 
and was made Solicitor-General. Joining Lord 
Grenville in 1805, he was made Irish Attorney- 
General in the Ministry of "All the Talents," and 
quitted office with them in 1807. In 1818, he was 
returned to the British Parliament for Dublin Uni- 
versity ; and appeared in the Imperial Parliament as 
extenuator of the pohcy of the Liverpool Cabinet. 
When the Marquis of Wellesley became Viceroy, in 
1822, Mr. Pluiiket was again made Attorney-General, 
at the instance of Lord Castlereagh, who desired aid 



BARON PLrNKET. 23^ 

against Brougham and the "hollow friendship" of 
Canning. And when Canning, in 1827, became 
Premier, he elevated Plunket to the peerage as 
Baron Plnnket, offered him a seat in the cabinet, and 
the office of Master of the Bolls in England. The 
English bar refnsed to plead before him. So he was 
made Chief Jnstice of the Irish Conrt of Common 
Pleas, which he filled np to 1830. In 1829, he took 
a conspicnous part in the movement for Catholic 
Emancipation, in wliich the career of Lord Plunket 
in Parliament maj be said to have closed. On the 
accession of Earl Grey and the Whigs to power, in 
1830, he was made Lord Chancellor for Ireland, 
which lie held until 1831:. He resumed this office 
in the following year, and retained it until 1841, 
when he was obliged to retire, with the pension of 
$4,000 per annum, to make way for Sir John, now 
Lord Campbell, the present Chief Justice of Eng- 
land. He died on the Irtli of January of the present 
year (1854). 

We ^ have had no squeamishness in dealing with 
Lord Plunket's actions. Some may say we have 
insulted his memory. Conld we respect it? Cer- 
tainly not, no more than we could the man who 
respects not the reasons we have shown for disres- 
pecting him. Others may say we have invaded tlie 
sanctity of the grave. History is not a grave, but 
tlie tombstone of the world, where all may read. 



♦ This paper originally appeared in The Citizen, February ISth, 1854, which wiU 
amount for the recurrence of the editorial mt nosyllable — we. 



236 



We liave dealt witli history, witli tlionglits, and acts, 
which agitated the minds of onr grandsires ; with 
words and deeds, which will not, cannot lie still, from 
the restless uncertainty of their nature. It is well 
to stay tliose gibbering ghosts betimes. The dead 
body suffers not by it, nor doth it cheat the worm of 
a meal the less. 

Another may say he was a genius, and that we 
should respect the man whose intellect sheds lusti-e 
upon Ireland. We say he was greater, no doubt, 
than better men ; but we will never respect the intel- 
lect whose highest, or whose lowest gauge, is the sale 
of his country, even supposing that country not to be 
our own, and above all, when that sale is made in tlie 
court-room, where at the very moment the noblest 
patriot of that country is receiving the sentence of 
death. 

Apologists may be found for him, but among them 
shall we never be identified. We, who have looked 
to Emmet as the mariner looks to the Polar star, as 
a guidance and a monitor who might dictate, by his 
course, our path in search of truth and freedom on 
the troublous ocean of life ; we, who have panted 
to see our young countrymen emulate his purity, his 
enthusiasm, and his fortitude, as young Christians do, 
when poring over the book of martyrs ; we, who 
have read the same pages which inspired him, witli 
the addition of another half century of oppression 
and famine — we, who are of him, as legitimately as 
day grows out of darkness, or night from noon — we, 
who are but separated from lum bodily by the length 



EAEON PLUNKET. 237 

of Plunket's infamy — by a short fifty years — a veriest 
grain of sand in tlie time-glass of the ages — can we act 
the Vandal in that sacred temple — the human heart, 
and level the inscribed tomb there f Can we deny 
the Godhead that as a man, we feel within ns, which 
recognizes in the young apostle of his country's free- 
dom the highest earthly attribute of divinity? 

ITo. It is not so easy as Lord Plunket's career might 
suggest. ISTor can that insatiable avengei-. Conscience^ 
be appeased with titles or traitorism. Horse-hair 
wigs cannot cover it, nor ermined gown mantle it to 
quiet. No covering can be a j^rotection, for the 
storm Cometh not from without, but is within, ever 
within, from the centre to the surface ; gnawing the 
one away until the other falls in, shrivelled, and 
gaunt, and thin, sensible to the slightest breath, and 
stabbed by every pointed finger. We would have 
given Plunhet copies of his great Anti-Union and 
Emmet sj)eeches to read on alternate days, to feed the 
devil of his conscience. 

While condemning with candor the manner in 
which he used his great intellect, it is not only the 
truth, but justice to say of it that which has been so 
often and so ably stated. He had a powerful and 
versatile genius. Whether we follow him through 
the intellectual ratiocination of metaphysics, as, with 
luminous ease, he explained, suggested, accumulated 
his thoughts to a final and comprehensive unravel- 
ling ; or whether, as a lawyer, we track his inge- 
nious sophistry through the resources of his easil}^- 
excited and self-suggesting powers, his untiring 



238 



energy, his excessive command of language, and his 
intricate applications which seemed a pastime, not a 
profession, to elucidate, " his satire," says Barring- 
ton, " was at times of that corroding, yet witty 
nature, that no patience could endure." Phillips 
sketched him as a "square-built, solitary, ascetic- 
looking person, pacing to and fro, his hands crossed 
behind his back, so apparently absoi'bed in self — the 
observer of all, yet the companion of none." JSlieil 
has given a very able analysis of his powers as an 
oi-ator in his Sketches of the Irish Bai\ to which we 
cannot make more than a reference. 

For some years Lord Plunket had been imbecile. 
His frame, like O'Connell's, had outworn the mind ; 
but on a late occasion, just previous to his death, and 
during one of those gleams of reason which fitfully 
visited his clouded intellect, he sought his papers, 
and destroyed a quantity of MSS. which he had, in 
his retirement, collected as a contribution towards a 
biography of himself. 

Did this gleam of sunshine reveal to bim, in one 
comprehensive group of years, the past? Did he 
again grow from childhood (the infancy of old age) 
to manhood, and feel its responsibilities withered ? 
Was it that conscience shook liim into a new life 
for an hour, that he might destroy the records of his 
years ? Or had he that sense of duty which Curran 
mapped out, when he said : 

"You, that propose to be the historian of yourself, go first 
aud trace out the boundary of your grave — stretch forth your 



BARON PLUNKET. 239 

hand and toucli the stone tliat is to mark yonr head, and swear 
by tlie majesty of death thy.t your testimony shall be true, 
unwarped by prejudice, unbiased by favor, and unstained by 
malice ; so mayest thou be a witness not unworthy to be exam- 
ined before the awful tribunal of that after time, which cannot 
begin until you shall have been numbered with the dead." 

We will not dare imagine what filled that awful 
moment of reason. All is mystery ! 



DANIEL O'CONNELL AND JOHN MITOHEL. 



11 



241 



AND MITCHEL. 243 



DAE-IEL O'COTsTISrELL AND JOHN MITCHEL. 

Posterity treats men as men treat tliemseh'es. 

If a man lives for the world, thinking at the same 
time that he himself is the Alpha and Omega of it, 
he will not see in his excess of selfishness what must 
follow as a consequence : that his world will but live 
for him, and that when he dies his world is as before 
when he was born. If he is remembered, it is as a 
warning. If not, futurity will not miss him. 

The man who casts the light of his loving eyes 
and the warmth of a huge soul over and upon the 
heads of his less heated brethren, shall live in their 
thankfulness. The richness and fellowship engen- 
dered by his sun-soul shall be reflected on an equally 
large circle, which shall do likewise to its prc2^eny^ 
and thus the goodnesses of the true man live, and 
s"«.^iead over all time, with the romance of tradit'on 
and the heartiness of truth. He has truly lived foi 
man, and man lives for him. He makes man t 
reflex, or the component parts of hims'^lf ; and mei' 
live, and die, and bequeath to men those parts ; anc 
all, be it never so far distant from his time, by virtue 
of the unselfishness bred of his influence, are readj 
';;o deliver up to his memory that part of which thej 



244 



were iiidivn'dnallj only as borrowers or care-takers, 
nourishing it in trust. 

The lives and misfortunes of true men make their 
persecutors and betrayers notorious ; — thus Arnold 
sliall paragraph a page with Washington, Louis 
JN^apoleon live with the w^orks of Victor Hugo, 
Gorgey for ever betray Kossuth, and Keynolds assas- 
sinate Lord Edward Fitzgerald. In like manner, 
great rivals preserve each other's memories ; and 
the greater the attraction of repulsion, the more 
indelible the marks chiselled on the tablets of histor3^ 

Althougl) O'Connell and Mitchel cannot truly be 
said to have been rivals, as the star of the former 
was sinking, if not sunk, wlien that of the latter 
arose ; yet, as the professed object of both was the 
same, and the means to attain it so deadly antagonis- 
tic, they certainly were, if age and time put personal 
rivalry out of the question, at least rivals in theory. 

Tbe difference was just this. For the attainment 
-of Irish nationality, O'Connell believed in the capa- 
city of his mouth ; Mitchel in that of the mouth of 
a cannon. And considering the effects of over ibrty 
years' experience of the former, it is much to be 
marvelled at, that no otlier man had courage suffi- 
cient to indicate a trial of the latter. 

But in sad, though honest t"ruth, O'Connell's wea- 
pon was a powerful one, not only exasperating by 
defiance, and making ridiculous by scorn, the ranks 
of Ireland's enemies, but humiliating by insinuations, 
and weakening by distrust, those wdio were, and 
those who could be her friends. 



O CONKELL AND MlTCHEL. 245 

O'Connell was born in Keriy, on the 6th Angnst. 
1775, and died at Genoa, on the 15th May, 1847. 
The future historian of Ireland will not find mucli to 
dwell on in tlie period embraced by those dates, 
although for the greater portion of it, the name of 
O'Connell, will boisterously battle for recognition. 
The lawyer, liowever, will be more prominent than the 
statesman; and some yet embryo Slieil will gloat 
over tlie materials for his chronicle of the Irish bar. 

The great points in O'Connell's career are three ; 
they are : — his entry into his profession, in Easter 
term, 1798, and his joining the "Lawyers' Corps" 
to aid the government to put down the United Irish- 
men — second, the Catholic Emancipation ; third, his 
attempt to put down Young Ireland. 

What his ideas of Irish nationality tended to, may 
be completely indicated, as they are embraced by his 
entrance into and exit from public life. He entered it 
with arms in his hands against the United Irishmen, 
and died in enmity with those wlio would imitate 
them." The title-page and "finis" of his life's volume 
were so far worthy of each other. Those facts should 
be engraved upon his tomb ; they are on a more 
lasting monument — History. " Catholic Emancipa- 
tion " can neither obliterate tlie first, nor palliate the 
last action ; nor should it. Emancipation did not 
free the popular tide, but placed a rock in its course 
which divided it. But for this, the people would 
have been irresistible. O'Connell became famous 
in the struggle, and from it carried such capital as 
lasted almost to the day of his death. Although ho 



246 'kinety-eight and VoRTY-Eiaffi^ 

alone lias been awarded the gloiy of the strife, and 
worn its laurels, there was another whose eloquence 
gave him a position not second to that of his stalwart 
coadjutor : — that was Richard Lalor Shell, whose 
career I shall embrace here in a few digressive 
pages. 

One could scarcely find a better epitome of 
Richard Lalor Shell, both as regards his capacities 
and political career, than in liis famous speech in 
1821, when he avowed the principle of petitioning 
Parliament, Mr. O'Connell being opposed to it. He 
attacked O'Connell with more brilliancy than bitter- 
ness, though with the very evident desire to sting. 
It is not a little remarkable, as carrying out the 
application of the following extract to both parties, 
to recollect that O'Connell afterwards became the 
very humblest petitioner, when Mr. Shell had ceased 
to petition, but enjoyed the favors of the British Gov 
ernment. Attacking O'Connell, Shell said : — " By i 
flexil)le accordance between his sense of duty and 
his love of popular praise, he served for some time to 
indicate the varieties of popular excitement. I 
should be loath to compare him to a sort of political 
vane, by whicli all the veerings of the breeze might 
be detenr.ined. -J^ * * -h- xi^q gentleman was 
certainly elevated in a very gaudy vehicle, embel- 
lished with every diversity of hue. He had risen 
with the shout of the multitude, and after throwing 
out all his ballast, and waving his green flag, he very 
skillfully adapted his course, in this serial voyage, to 
all the mutations of impulse which agitated the 



oVoNNELL AND MITCIIEL. 24? 

Stormy medium through which he passed, until at 
last, in attempting to rise into a still more lofty 
region, he has allowed the thin and combustible 
materials of his buoyancy to take fire, and comes 
tumbling down in a volume of fiery vapor." 

There was "manifest destiny" in this. It is Shell's 
career, so far as nationality to Ireland is concerned ; 
and that will ever be deeply concerned in conjunc- 
tion with the name of anj one who, like Slieil, makes 
snch a volcanic eruption into Irish j)olitics, and dis- 
appears, leaving the people of the new Hercnlaneum 
buried beneath its lava. The eruption was so short, 
so brilliant, so gushing, they were held entranced 
before they could escape it. 

Shell was born in Waterford, on the 16th August, 
1791, and died at Florence, 26th April, 1851. He 
was thoroughly educated, first at his home by a 
French refugee, a clergyman ; next at Kensington 
House, Loudon, by the French Jesuits, who had, 
strangely enough, taken the Magdalen residence of a 
mistress of Charles the Second, and purified it into a 
home for Peres de la Foi; afterwards at Stoneyhurst 
in Lancashire; and lastly, in Trinity College, Dublin. 
His father being ruined by a speculation, Kichard 
flung himself upon his intellectual resources, and 
ov^ercame the temporary obstacles which stood in the 
way of his being admitted to the bar. To defray the 
necessary expenses, he wrote a tragedy — " Adelaide," 
' — which, owing solely to the acting of Miss O'Keill, 
had some success. Not progressing as a lawyer, he 
again looked to the stage, having in the meantime 



2^8 NINETY-EIGHT AND FOKTY-EIGHT. 

taken unto lilinself a wife, and produced " The Apos- 
tate " and " Bellamira," which, though excessively 
theatrical, and reljing chiefly on scenic effect, 
yielded him considerable funds. '' Evadne '' made 
its appearance in 1819, " which had a great run, and 
in which Miss O'Neil astonished London.""^ 

Shell entered political life as the mouthpiece of the 
Catholic aristocracy of Ireland. Although very 
young, he commanded a position among them, 
became the " observed of all observers," as a fire- 
cracker flung into a crowd, scatters them about to 
witness it jerk and fizzle and burn itself out. He 
ended the same and his mortal life, " looking," says 
Dr. Shelton Mackenzie, with a dubious idea of dig- 
nity in an Irish orator, " to his appointment as a 
dignified close to his public career " in the capacity 
of Minister to the petty court of Florence. 

Between these periods he was a notable man — a 
very notable man — and at one time the "t\\in 
leader" of the Irish Catholics, as Mr. W. Fagan, 
M. P., calls hiin in his memoirs of O'Connell. Meet- 
ing the latter at the house of a mutual friend, former 
differences were healed, and Shell was the first to 
flatter the ready ear of the other into action upon the 
" great project " which made them both so famous, 
and thus from this dinner j^arty in the County 

* This tragedy still holds the stage ; and la America it has found an able heroine 
m Mrs. Julia Dean Hayne. By his labors as a dramatist, Sheil realized £2,000. 
William Henry Curran, son of the great orator, has always received a share of the 
credit due to the authorship of the " Sketches of the Irish Bar," which appeared 
about this period ; l>ut Dr. Mackenzie, who had Sheil's authority, says that " the 
id«a originated " with the former, "but the execution was Slieil's." 



2J:9 



Wicklow, emanated the appeal to the Catholics of 
the countiy. 

Sheil's startling eloquence — its energetic denuncia- 
tion of wrong, rhetorical persuasiveness of right, 
rapid accunnihition of imagery, poetic sympathies, 
and nervous declamation — dazzled, as well it might, 
his hearers and readers. For "twins," the leaders 
of the Catholic movement had not the slightest 
family likeness. No two could well be more diffe- 
rent in form, size, power, and manner, than were 
Shell and O'Connell. One was as the commingled 
voices of the i-apids, lashing over the rocks and 
throwing up beautiful and brilliant spray in profuse 
diamonds; the other, in a word, the broad cataract. 
The mould and manner of each was typical of the 
individual power, and there could be no greater con- 
trast than iu the characteristics of the two : O'Con- 
nell, impassioned stolidity, if I may use the phrase ; 
Shell — small, slight, and nervons-looking — inspired 
restlessness. 

His speeches could not but be effective, for he 
combined the most exciting qualities of the French 
revolutionary and Irish schools of oratory. This 
combination grew out of Ijis enrly proficiency in the 
French tongue, and his natural Irish genius. What 
could stop or stay the fountain springing thence ? 
Certainly not an Irish audience, whose warm sympa- 
tiiies and indigenous excitability almost anticipate 
tlie words of any orator who speaks to them of their 
country. They bear the gifts and the consequences 

11* 



f350 'ninety-eight and 'forty- eight. 



of an excitable, intellectual nation. They anticipate 
too much, and as a consequence vacillate accordingly. 
Yesterday they have anticipated to-day, and to-mor- 
row will be seeking that which they have anticipated ; 
thus are they seldom clearly with the present. They 
are ever before or behind the time. They leap at 
conclusions, such as believing that O'Connell had the 
''Repeal of the Union" in his pocket, or that "he 
would lay his head on the block in six months" if 
he did not produce it. The orator thus purchases 
half a year's quietude, at the slight expense of the 
people's anticipation. They leaped with Shell 
through all his fiery ordeals of metaphor or exagge- 
ration, and, delighted to find a man who could out- 
excite their excitement (giving his own time), raised 
him to a dizzy height of popularity. From this 
heiglit — after working as he could wOik, after mak- 
ing that reputation on which he live.i to the day of 
his deatli, and for which he will live ^n history — after 
rousing as well the notabilities of England as the 
people of Ireland, and forcing them to acknowledge 
his genius, if not his cause, and di awing forth per- 
sonal attentions (deadening influences these to a mere 
orator), from dukes, lords, baronet.^, and the praises 
of even Jeremy Bentham — he fell into a seat in the 
English House of Commons, for tl e English borough 
of Milbourne Port, by favor and patxonage of my 
Lord Anglesea, in March, 1831 ; and became a mere 
Whig placeman. 

I have heard anecdotes of S ieil which in th& 



O CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 25l 

minds of some palliate tlie career wliicli all Irish 
nationalists much condemn. One of tliose, being 
wprojpos to O'Connell, I give. 

Soon after the release of O'Connell and the state 
prisoners in 1844, it was resolved in tlie Committee 
of the Kepeal Association to send a deputation to 
Shell, who had been counsel of John O'Connell, at 
the late state trials, to propose his accession to the 
ranks of Conciliation Hall. Mr. Doheny was named 
by Mr. O'Connell for the mission, and to him was 
confided a message to the effect that "he (O'Connell) 
would resign the leadership if Sheil would join 
them." Doheny went to London, sought Sheil at 
the Athenaeum Club House, and opened the nature 
of his mission to him. Sbeil immediately postponed 
anv reference to it save in the presence of his wife. 

l^ext morning tlie Eepeal deputy breakfasted with 
the family of the " iambic rhapsodist," as O'Connell 
called his twin emancipator ; when, Sheil stating to 
his wife the purpose of their guest, the matter was 
quickly discussed and closed. 

When Doheny delivered the " confidential mes- 
sage," Sheil laughed ontright, saying, " You do not 
know O'Connell—/ do !" 

He did not pretend to know what the opinion or 
purposes of others were; but this he knew, that if 
they meditated anything " O'Connell would crush 
them." He condemned O'Connell as intolerant — a 
great aristocrat — and said that if the Kepeal Associa- 
tion would go for separation from England, then he 
(Sheil) would be with it. 



S52 'NixiTY-KiGiiT an:) 'l-01?rY-EIGilT. 

The iiDbonuded joy wliicli followed the struggle so 
misunderstood and exaggerated — the Emancipation — 
was in no little manner ruinons to the futnre freedom 
of Ireland. Eninons, inasmuch as, in the first fit of 
popular intoxication, it placed nnlimited power in 
the hands of a man who could have worked out for 
himself and for his country, a brighter and a higher 
destin)^, had lie not been thus inopportunely and 
indiscreetly placed in an immature zenith of political 
leadership. 

In that struggle the wonderful and selfish sagacity, 
undeniable power, and pDlitical craft of Daniel 
O'Connell became manifest. He had a degraded 
people — degraded in having to deny their religion 
to preserve their lives and properties — to fashion to 
his purpose. He had to encounter in his enemies, 
power, dexterity, and daring ; yet, ere the contest 
w^as over, he outwitted the most cunning, and out- 
brazoned the most intolerant. He succeeded in 
deceiving his opponents, and of all the great qualities 
characteristic of the struggle, the most prized, was 
the " cunning of evasion," the influence of which 
has since paralyzed the country. He deceived his 
constituents also as well as his foes; broke up, when 
he had used, the forty- shilling freeholders' right of 
franchise — npon the powers of whicli he based his 
success — and flung the mantle of emancipation over 
the houseless hundreds of thousands sent wandering 
on the highways and byways by his consent. These 
poor forty-shilling freeholders were the parents of his 
powei- ; and he, like other, though un-Irish, sons. 



O'CONNELL i^ND MITCHEL. 253 

who became conspicuous throiigli the endeavors and 
truthfulness of poor fathers— forgot the means of his 
being, and looked only to his own ends. 

O'Connell, a great tactician, knew that a success 
was needed to fix his position. He knew that in the 
clamor of a victory, the means or the sacrifices taken 
to achieve it woukl be fogotten. So he fought the 
"bloodless" battle, and sacrificed willingly the 
greater portion of the army, whose very muster-roll 
frightened the enemy. 

The clergy and middle classes — whose tongues, 
passionate from long experience of silence, or lialf- 
uttered disquietudes, were too eager to show the 
world the use they could make of them — talked 
the "Emancipator" into an impromptu immortality, 
cheered him with a frenzy that grew delighted with 
its own delusive exuberance, shouted themselves, if 
not O'Connell, into the actual belief that they were 
redeemed and disenthralled; and deduced from 
the recorded echoes of yesterday's clamor, the chief 
reason why they should continue, if not surpass it 

to-day. 

•In the self-created excitement, they forgot the past. 
Forgot, or seemed to forget the Protestants and Pres- 
byterians who died for them— the United Irishmen, 
whose lives were devoted to them upon a grander 
issue. The priests apparently forgot tliose of their own 
order, who left them the scaffold as well as the altar 
for a legacy, and sacrificed the glowing patriotism 
which they inherited, for the cold and sectional, but 
meretricicus political desires of the day. 



25J 



It v/a3 not O'Conn ell's purpose to aid their memory. 
The giorj of the dead as well as the living created 
his jealousy and inspired him to silence. 

In the flush of insanity, the people styled him 
" Liberator," consigning to oblivion all those who had 
preceded him in the struggle for their national rights. 
They raised the giant hate and envy of the Protest- 
ants, wliich has since pi-oved to be the most enduring 
and stubborn connectino^-link with Enoi;land, and 
wliich John Mitchel, of all men of our generation, 
directed his energies most effectually to sunder. 
And to crown their madness, they reared up an 
annual tribute — put gold into the balance with his 
patriotism, gave up thinking for themselves, and 
paid him for being their j)rox3^ He was the retained 
lawyer of the Irish Catholics. 

It is superfluous to explain how unfortunate such 
a movement was for the future prospects of Ireland. 

An eagle is as much degraded in a golden as in an 
iron cage. They are both one to the bird. A cage 
is a cage ; and the ambitious pride of the natural 
monarch of the air becomes so mopish in its thral- 
dom, that at last, its movements are merely mecha- 
nical, occasionally fluttering its wings to attract jjas- 
sing attention, stooping for its carrion, or listlessly 
perched upon the dead and mamifactured branches 
ornamenting the centre of its prison. 

Such was O'Connell's fate. His o^randlv gifted 

O I/O 

intellect, which might have soared to immortality, was 
chained down with the golden bands which sophistry 
called a "tribute," His speeches, instead of being 



O'CONNELL AND MITCHEL. '2i>6 

the natural instinct and inspiration of truth, tscame 
the efforts of tlie paid advocate : thej were the 
same old ditties, the " Clare Election," the "Heredi- 
tary Bondsmen," the " finest peasantry on the face 
of the earth," and " the base, bloody, and brutal 
Whigs," upon which he played numberless varia- 
tions, as he alone could, with staccato notes on " Scor- 
pion Stanley," on " the descendant of the impenitent 
thief who died upon the cross, D'Israeli," with 
andante-movements of late on the "Godless Colleges," 
and allegro passages on almost every public man and 
measure of his time. His new associations became 
periodical, and as a matter of course. In fact, his 
agitation had all the complexity, effect, and noise of 
mechanism : partaking, too, for a period, its perfec- 
tion, so far at least as the desire of the inventor was 
interested. His fluttering, his retirements, and his 
stooping for the carrion followed regularly. He was 
wound up like a clock, and had to strike to let all 
know he was there — keeping time for the " cause." 
His months went on like the gradations of the hours, 
heightening towards the twelfth, which was very 
loud, and gave notice of an approaching interest in 
number one. Thus it was, and the people, alas ! at 
a very late hour became undeceived. 

The career of O'Connell was as wonderful as it was 
deceptive.- He entered the British senate, stormed it 
till its ablest representatives listened in silence and 
awe to the " Irish Leader." He reared enemies on 
all sides, and frightened them by his audacity and 
skill. He contracted, and seemed to revel in^ thQ 



Vi 



256 'ninety-eight and 

increasing opposition and distrust of the Protestants; 
while he fostered the sectionality of Catholicism. 
He begot societies with the fecundity of a rabbit; 
all of which •' were tried and found wanting," as Devin 
Eeilly said, " in everything but oratory, funds to pay 
for the same, and impoverished believers." He 
earned the steady watchfulness and opposition of the 
government : was more than once arrested for sedi- 
tion ; and became a public derai-god — an idol paid 
for putting his foot upon any one wlio had genius or 
daring enough to aspire to a place in the popular 
will. And lastly, started the "Loyal National Eepeal 
Association," built Conciliation Hall, and dazzled the 
adoiing people's eyes with the antagonistic mottoes 
' Ireland for the Irish," — "God save the Queen." 

This last association looked so like a daguerreotype 
of its predecessors, that it met with but little success 
at first, and needs must have fallen still-born, were it 
not that O'Connell's audacity and wariness provoked 
the government to proscription, and a menace was 
held out by Lord Ebrington, that no one should be 
employed by the government who followed in his 
path. The government-hating and opposition-loving 
spirit of the land was aroused, and the Kepeal ranks 
and treasury at the same time were soon filled. 

But there was fast growing, both in strength and 
in the love and confidence of the countiy, a party 
wdio were soon destined to shed a o^lorv on their era 
— the nestlings who were soon to take wing, and 
soar untrammelled by any other will save that 
which Omnipotence endowed them with — "Young 



AND MITCHEL. 257 

Ireland," whose name has since become world-wide, 
as synonymous with, genius, and whose enemies 
have been betrayed into rapture over the lyrical and 
oratorical passion that was distinctly heard even 
amid the more practical agony of Europe in the rage 
of revolution. It was not long before the members 
of this party showed a growing spirit of antagonism 
to the usual hum-drum proceedings of " the Hall." 

They were young spirits, full of enthusiasm and 
sincerity ; believing .in self-reliance, and a glorious 
deliverance. They had no cant, no duplicity, no 
cliicaner}^ Bursting with love, genius, and energy, 
they could not brook silence when Truth demanded 
utterance. When dissimulation was visible, they 
would crush it fearlessly, no matter w^ho the dissem- 
bler. After the God of Life — Honor and Justice, 
were their household deities. This party had an 
organ characterized by all those qualities for. which 
they were celebrated — " The I^ation " — the publica- 
tion of which marked a new era in the history of Ire- 
land. The talent of that journal — tlie combined 
energies of the Young Ireland party — soon raised it 
to such a jDinnacle in Ireland, that it argued a down- 
right ignorance, and Avant of appreciation of lite- 
rature, to be without it : nor did its real merits or 
reputation stay until it was second to no literary 
or political journal of Europe, at the same time that 
it was steadily rearing a transatlantic fame. 

The founder of this party, and the first who 
"dared" to cross the path of O'Connell, was the 
young and gifted Thomas Davis, by far the greatest 



258 



man of the day, of his own or any other party in Ire- 
land. It seemed as if the combined worth of the 
party was centred in him, and he toiled with 
gigantic efforts, as if he knew it. 

At one of the re-unions of the party at tlie house 
of Thomas Mac^evin, an accomplished scholar, 
forcible writer, and brilliant orator, the series of works 
widely known as the " Library of Ireland," was pro- 
jected and determined upon. Whatever of gran- 
deur and greatness there was in the land — its poetry, 
its legends, the lives of its men of piety, learning, 
and distinction — the annals of its wars and soldiers — 
its struggles and its martyrs — all that was national 
and instructive — the scenery aad resources — rivers 
and ruins from Donegal to Kerry, from the isles 
of Achill to Ben Heder — was to be illustrated, and 
presented in a cheap yet worthy form to the people. 
The series were issued monthly, and ran to twenty- 
two volumes. Some of them had a remarkable suc- 
cess, remarkable so far that it w^as proven that works 
of a truly national character were seized with avidity 
and heartily welcomed by the people. As a means 
of educating the country, the value of the chief 
volumes, cannot be over-estimated. 

Scarcely, however, had the work received sure 
promise of success, than an attendant shadow followed 
the light which shone upon the land. A deep and 
sudden gloom swept over it, in the death of that 
active and ever-restless spirit who had insj)ired so 
much faith and purpose into his comrades. 

Mozart died finishing the requiem that was first 



S59 

destined to chant over its creator, and then to enchant 
creation. De Lisle wrote tlie cliant that conducted 
him to the scaffold ; and which then became and since 
remained the war-cry of his nation — the Marseillaise 
Tasso lived long, yet died only when appreciated — the 
blithe notes of Fame singing him out of the world, 
with the laurels on his brow for a death-chaplet. 
And Thomas Davis fled from the earth when he had 
created a spirit and fostered an appreciation that 
could weep tears of blood for his loss. 

The genius of the ablest and best, as well as the 
sympathies of the people, hovered over and took 
a sad inspiration from his grave. Kichard D'Alton 
Williams, Samuel Ferguson, Francis Davis ("The 
Belfast Man,") J. De Jean Ffraser, Fisher Murray, 
Martin Mac Dermott, Charles Gavan Duffy, and 
others, wove his virtues and his life into loving 
strands of melodious mourning and lamentation : 
there was no voice, save of sorrow in the Association. 
" I am deeply afflicted at that loss, and Ireland has 
cause to mourn it," said O'Connell. " With him," 
wrote Smith O'Brien, "Love of country was more 
than a sentiment — more than a principle of duty. It 
was the absorbing passion of his life — the motive of 
every action — the foundation of every feeling." " He 
struck living fire from inert wayside stones," said 
Michael Doheny, " To him the meanest rill, the 
rugged mountain, the barren waste, the rudest frag- 
ment of barbaric history, spoke the language of ele- 
vation, harmony, and hope." And in that Hall, into 
the affairs and purposes of which Davis infused 



260 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

so Diucli vigor and cutliusiasrn, the future orator, 
Meaglier — as the knights of old before going forth to 
uphold the living, devoted the night previous to the 
^ead — gave the first promise of his devotion to the 
country, in a tribute to its lost organizer. "His ser- 
vices," said Meagher, '* excited the j^outh. of the 
country to generous purposes and lofty deeds, and 
consoled the old patriots in their progress to the 
grave." Taking hope from the generous sentiments 
and liberal views of the dead, which incited Union 
amongst Irishmen, and looking forward for the con- 
summation of his desires, the eulogist concluded by 
picturing at once the indebtedness and duty of the 
liberated land to Davis, thus: "In the day of vie-, 
tory, towards which he had often looked with a 
panting heart and a glowing soul, they will beckon 
us to the grave, bid us pluck a laurel from the 
nation's brow, and plant it on his tomb." 

The public journals of every shade of opinion — 
those that could not agree with his full and decided 
views, and those that completely differed with him 
and his party — rivalled each other in doing justice to 
his character and talents. One of the former, while 
admitting that "he often ventured to differ from the 
Liberator," thought it scarcely possible " to enume- 
rate the many services he rendered his country."* 
Of the latter, one exhalted his *' patriotism as a citizen 
— h-is acquirements as a scholar — his influence as a 
writer ;"f and another, the chief Tory organ, enqmr- 

* Dublin "Freeman's Journal," 17th Sept., 1845. 
"f Publin " Evenuig Post," 18tli Sept., 1845. 



O OONNELL AND MITCHEL. 261 

ing—'' Why siiould not the grave suspend, at least, 
onr political animosities," when " deatli levels all dis- 
tinctions?" tlius made room in its columns to recounc 
tlie " vigor of intellect, * * intense sincerity, and 
unflinching boldness, the learning and science,"* that 
characterized his life and efforts. 

The death of a great opponent, as of a great friend, 
is a deep loss ; for in tlie grave of the one, not less 
tlian that of tlie other, are buried much hearty im 
petus and inspiration to intellectual labor. 

On the 1st October, 1845, the fourth volume of the 
" Library of Ireland " made its appearance, and 
brouglit prominently before the public the master 
nn'nd of Irish patriotism in this generation. The 
volume was the life of the great Ulster chief and 
statesman, Aodh O'J^eill, and the author, John Mit- 
cliel. In this book and its author Davis was deeply 
interested. He looked upon both as the ablest and 
most serviceable contribution to Ireland. I have 
read many letters from him to the author, during the 
pi-ogress of the work, all full of friendship and 
suggestion, which were dearly cherished, and ex- 
pectation which was nobly redeemed by the re- 
ceiver. On the fresh grave of his "dear friend," 
Mitchel placed the first fruits of his passionate devo- 
tion, his tierce calmness, his deep research, his analy- 
tical humor. The work was dedicated, with " deep 
reverence," to the memory of Davis, and remains as 
it; is likely to do, the most enduring monument to 

♦ Dublin " Evening Mail," 17th September, 1846. 



^62 



Iiim. It is the connecting link between the two 
greatest Irishmen of our day. 

Mitchel was born at Diingiven, County Deny, 
Ulster, in tlie year 1816. His latlier was a distin- 
guished Unitarian minister, and — as his son boasted 
to O'Connell on the memorable 13th July, 181:6*— 
a United Irishman. His mother, who still lives to 
behold her son's reputation, and of wliom it may be 
said, as of the mother of the Gracchi, that in her 
chiidi-en she beholds her greatest treasui-es — was a 
Miss Haslett, of Deny. While 3'et young his parents 
removed to Newry, where the boy received the rudi- 
ments of an excellent education; he afterwai'ds en- 
tered Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated with 
several honors, as Bachelor of Arts. 

One of those who combine all the resistless assi- 
duity of the student, with the more decided charac- 
teristics, both of speech and action, which make the 
revolutionist — Mitchel is a man who grasps almost 
intuitively, and while he absorbs knowledge, sifts, 
discards, combines and arranges it, as the character 
and truth of the study has an affinity with his intel- 
lect. It is thus that law, theolog^^, philosophy, 
metaphysics, history, political economy, Greek, Ro- 
man and English classics, and the vexed and com- 
plex story of Ireland pouring round him from its 
Jiundred chronicles, seem respectively to have com- 
manded his particular study. This variety does not 
detract from the profundity of his knowledge, but, 

See speedi of Mitchel, in Conciliation Hall, of this datOb 



O CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 



26^ 



on tlie conti-arj, liis brain, like the sea, is made 
Btroiiger hy every stream. He is the least pretentious, 
or (as the phrase goes) " showy " public or literary 
man I have ever met, for the reason that the river 
makes less noise than the rapids. Any one who 
visits IS^iagara may hear more clamor in a da}^ than 
he would catch on the ocean in a summer. 

Mitchel ^\as orio^inallv intended for the church, 
but he became an attorney, and began life as partner 
in a law iirm in Banbi-idge. Of the period of his 
apprenticeship to the law there is an episode, the 
happy effects of which will forever keep it smiling 
through the story of his early life. It is that episode 
in every man's life which niakes or unmakes him — • 
his choice of a life-partner. Mitchel's was of a pecu- 
liarly romantic nature, ending in an elopement, when 
not quite twenty years old, with Miss Jane Yerner, 
wliose rare personal attractions but indicated the 
gentle beauty of her nature ; and wdiose heroic forti- 
tude, and relentless, though womanly dignity, under 
tlie trying circumstances attending her husband's 
career, will inspire some future poet to steal her 
name and virtues from the page of past history to 
ffive a soul and a character to romance. 

Mitchel had joined tlie Kepeal ranks in May, 1843, 
but still resided in Banbridge, engaged in an already 
lucrative business as a lawyer. The publication of 
his " Aodh O'Xeill," however, at once made his 
reputation as a writer. From this day his power 
was felt. Yery soon he was induced to quit the 
North and assume the position left vacant by the 



264 'ninety -ETCrllT AND 

death of Davis — that of chief writer on the " Xatioii :" 
and ahiiost at the same time Deviii Eeilly became a 
contributor to its columns. Althougli the nucleus of 
the party had been for some time in existence, and 
numbered many able men in its coterie before Mit- 
chel came to Dublin, he had scarcely set foot per- 
manently among them until he became the leading 
thinker of the band. He had scarcely set foot in the 
editorial office of the " E'ation " when his steps shook 
the Castle. Almost instantaneously the presence of 
a fresh and able mind was discovered in the councils 
of the nationalists ; and but a few weeks sufficed to 
draw down the wrath of the government. 

Kailroad speculations were engaging the attention 
of the rich and the reckless ; famine was harassing 
the stomachs of the poor. The former were looking 
for bills, the latter for bread ; and there was much 
clamor about stocks and starvation, when the gov- 
ernment of Sir Kobert Peel thought tit, through its 
oi"g:ans, to hold out threats of coercion. In the rail- 
ways Peel beheld the panacea for Irish disquietude. 
" Law must be vindicated and sedition crushed," 
cries one of his oi'gans,* while another congratulates 
the administration on the ready means, and, looking 
to the Irish railways, exclaims : " Every part of Ire- 
land will soon be within six hours of the garrison of 
Dublin."t 

Mitchel took up the gauntlet thus thrown down. 
He welcomed the threats with the words : " It is 

* " London Morning Herald." t " Loudon Standard." 



265 

good for us that the instinctive insolence of our 
enemies should sometimes recal ns to onr sober 
senses." He welcomed the coercive acts of govern- 
ment, believing that external violence would only 
consolidate the purposes of the country ; and as for 
tlie railways, he conld make as good use of them as 
the government. Reminding the latter and the 
people how the Hollnnders prevented the advance 
of French armies into their country by opening the 
embankments, and admitting the sea; how, "in one 
day, those fertile plains, with all their waving corn, 
were a portion of the stormy German Ocean," he 
deduced the fact that people might sacrifice the rail- 
roads to their patriotism. They were "inconceiv- 
ably valuable " for commercial purposes, but for the 
transport of invading armies they could well be dis- 
pensed with. If they were valuable to a government, 
they miglit be made above all price to a rising people. 
In a few clear sentences he showed how in one night 
every railroad within five miles of Dublin could be 
cut off from the interior ; that the materials, " good 
hammered iron and wooden sleepers," were useful 
"in other lines than assisting locomotion;" "that 
troops on march by rail might be conveniently met 
with in divers places," and concluded in the belief 
that " Ilofer, with his Tyroleans, could hardly desire 
a deadlier ambush than the brinks of a deep cutting 
upon a railway. Imagine a few hundred men lying 
in wait upon such a spot, with masses of rock and 
trunks of trees ready to roll down — and a train or 
two advancing with a regiment of infantry, and the 

12 



266 

engine panting near and nearer, till the polished 
studs of brass on its front are distinguishable, and 
its name may nearly be read ; ' Now, in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ! 
— now ' 

" Bnt 'tis a dream. ]^o enemy will dare put us to 
realize these scenes. Yet, let all understand what a 
railway may and what it may not do."* 

The " Xation " was prosecuted for this reply to 
the Government, but the trial did not take place 
until June, IT, of the following year. 

The venerable Robert Holmes, as counsel for tlie 
defense, made a veiy powerful speech, the most 
remarkable feature of which was the detailed ac- 
count, based on English law authorities, such as Sir 
John Davies, Chief Justice Yaughan, Lord Mans- 
iield and Blackstone, showing that according to the 
English reading, Ireland did not possess a shadow of 
the true j^rinciple of freedom. He defied any consti- 
tutional lawyer to deny the fact. He showed that 
certain cases cited by the Attorney-General on the 
law of libel, were thoroughly irrelevant to the present 
issue, as they j)ertained to England; drew- a forcible 
picture of the state of the country, justified the pub- 
lication of the article, as a necessary consequence of the 
government publications and threats, and argued on 
constitutional grounds that, as " insurrection against 
lawful authority was rebellion, and to excite to it, 
sedition; so resistance to oppression was not rebel- 

* " Nation " Nov. 22, 1845. 



O CONKELL AND MITCfiEL. 20? 

lion, nor to teach a people the means of successfully 
resisting oppression, sedition." After a clear, bold, 
and eloquent effort, in which he appeared more the 
accuser of the crown than the defender of his client, 
he called on the jury for a verdict of acquittal, " not 
as the boon of mercy — not as the safety valve of 
doubt, but as the clear, unequivocal, decisive expres- 
sion of their regard for the rights of nature, and the 
cause for which ' Wallace fought and Hampden 
bled.' " 

It was a noble sight to see that old man, t^he 
memories of '82 and '98 and 1803 conjured up by 
his presence at any time, but vividly suggested by 
the peculiarity of his position then, coming forth, 
with the ashes of his martyred kinsmen and friends 
upon him, to sanctify sedition by illumining it with 
the spirit of the past. " We thought we heard the 
blood of Emmet crying aloud from the ground f 
said Mitchel : "His catalogue of England's crimes, 
sounded like the accusing voice of our dead patriots 
and martyrs, saying to us — 'Awake ! arise ; or be 
for ever fallen.' " 

The Chief Justice, in charging the jury, desired 
them to dismiss from their minds the impressions 
left by Holmes' address — " an addi-ess," he added, 
"which has never been surpassed in a court of jus- 
tice." As it was not the desire of the bench " to 
control " but " to assist " the jurors, he would say that 
the publication in question was a seditious libel, and 
proceeded at some length to " assist " their convic- 
tions into his own belief. The jury, however, dis- 



268 NINETY-EIGHT AND 

agreed ; and being locked up all night and continuing 
to disagree all next day were discharged at three in 
tlie afternoon. 

This was a triumph for Young Ireland because for 
the " Xation," which, notwithstanding its good effect 
on the country, was not received by Conciliation 
Hall with even a favorably disguised silence. The 
" Young " and the " Old " were watchful of each 
other. The latter, rocked in the cradle of, made 
idlers by, having hopes only from, and grown pre- 
maturely grey in, the routine of useless agitations, 
had not sufficient talent to hide the conscious roguery 
of their movements and anticipations. The former, 
young, educated, and chivalrous, had joined the 
ranks of what they believed a national party, not to 
temporize on the repntation of that party, not to 
wheedle the people and fawn upon the officials, not 
to enter on a series of misei-able concessions which 
degraded the receivers while they did not weaken 
the government — and were naturally jealous of the 
character of the associates and the Association, 
among whom and into which their naturall}^ honest 
and. high-toned impulses led them. 

^rationality was the trade of the one — the dream 
of the other. The " Old " lived by it ; the " Young " 
lived for it. It was the platform of the former; it 
might be tlie scaffold of the latter. 

The old O'Connellite party, from time to time, 
began to feel the power and the evident determina- 
tion of the younger and more intelligent body. 
There had been many differences between them. 



269 



Mr. Smith O'Brien, who had joined the Eepeal ranks 
in the excitable times of 18-13, during the period of 
the State Trials, sided with the young party, not 
through any premeditated desire, but purely from 
expressing himself in favor of "education, self-re- 
liance, organization and progress." The Young Ire- 
landers saw it was necessary to curtail the expenses 
with which Conciliation Hall was wantonly beset, by 
a lot of sinecure emj^loyments, and took an oppor- 
tunity of so doing at a time when O'Connell was 
absent at Deri-ynane. They continued their efforts 
w4ien he came to town, and so differences arose in 
committee. On one of these occasions, matters were 
pushed to a division. O'Connell was in the chair, 
when the votes stood, the Reforming party twenty- 
three, the O'Connellite twenty-two. " Here O'Con- 
nell assumed the right to give two votes, one as 
member, which made the numbers equal, and a 
casting vote as chairman."* It was without pre- 
cedent, and its unfairness is palpable to all. There 
was a bitter quarrel, also, on a discussion of the Col- 
leges Bill, which proposed a system of mixed edu- 
cation, which would be most beneficial to Ireland, 
inasmuch as by it the youth of the land would be 
reared free from the bigotry which a separate and 
sectional education instils into tlie young mind, 
and which it is impossible thoroughly to eradicate. 
It was denounced by extreme bigots as " godless," 
and in '• opposition to Scripture." Some Protestants, 

* Vide Mr. Doheny's " Felon's Track," p. 84. 



270 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

and one Catholic bigot, joined on this ground. The 
Young Irelanders were in favor of education, sup- 
ported it, and argued its necessity. Mr. O'Connell 
would have " new colleges, purely Catholic, and 
entirely under the control of the Catholic Bishops," 
and was " against mixed education." 

The success of the " Nation," which, while it ever 
upheld O'Connell as the Irish leader, also held itself 
independent, was at once a warning and a matter of 
jealousy to the ^' Hall.". The speech of Mr. Holmes, 
too, and the eclat which instantaneously greeted it, 
came at a time calculated to hurry on the differences 
existing between the men of action and the agitators. 
On the Monday (June 15th), previous to the trial, 
Meagher, by levelling a thunderbolt at the Whigs, 
had created the greatest excitement in the Hall. It 
was a bold experiment and a successful one — as suc- 
cessful as it was dai-ing. 

In England, political excitement ran high. There 
was defection in the ranks of the Tories. The Pro^ 
tectionists, under Lord George Bentinck and Benja- 
min D'Israeli, had seceded from Sir Robert Peel. 
Owing to this defection, and the visible ^veakness of 
the government party, the accession of the Whigs to 
office was confidently looked to. The introduction 
into the House of Commons of the Irish Coercion 
Bill, gave them an opportunity for a general break 
up. On the second i-eading (June 5th), the Protec- 
tionists, as well as the chief members of the Whi^r 
party, opposed the coercive measures of the govern- 
ment ; but on totally different grounds. 



O^CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 271 

The former were well disposed to the measure, 
but, anxious to revenge themselves on Peel for 
his declaration respecting the repeal of the corn- 
laws and the opening of the ports, pretended a dis- 
belief in the sincere motives of the government in 
desiring to carry it. Lord Bentinck, after reviewing 
the state of Ireland, and showing that the offences to 
be met by the bill had lessened twenty per cent. ; that 
in the postponement of the bill from the month of 
January to the middle of June, but poor evidence of 
its necessity was exhibited ; concluded by stating it 
as a " mockery and an insult to both parties in Ire- 
land, to brandish before their eyes a measure which 
it is never intended to carry into effect," — and be- 
lieved that the "sooner they kicked out the bill, and 
w^itli it her majesty's ministers, the better." D'Israeli 
supported Bentinck in a bitter speech against Peel, 
in which he charged him with having got into power 
by professing opinions contrary to those which he 
now sought to force on the country. He believed 
that IN'emesis regulated the division that had taken 
place, and " was then about to stamp, with the seal 
of parliamentaiy reprobation, the catastrophe of a 
sinister career." 

The Whigs, on the other hand, opposed the gov- 
ernment by making a display of feeling towards 
Ireland. "Do not," said Lord John Kussell, "let 
the people of Ireland believe that you have no sym- 
pathy with their afflictions — no care for their 
wrongs ;" and, following up this key-note, strained 
every nerve to form a coalition with the Irish Kepeal 



272 



members. O'Connell fell into the trap, so far as to 
compliment Russell, by feeling "deeply gratified" 
at his course. It was evident that the Tory adminis- 
tration would fall, and scarcely less so that the 
Whigs would succeed ; and with their accession were 
coupled rumors of repeal combination and action 
therewith. 

It was at this juncture that Meagher made the 
speech alluded to in the Hall. He flung back the sym- 
pathy as well as the promises of redress held out by the 
Whig leaders. Whig and Tory were all one to him 
— all one to Ireland. '• Whatever statesmen rule 
the empire — whatever policy may prevail, the prin- 
ciples of this Association shall remain inviolate." " I 
state this boldly," he said, " for the suspicion is 
abroad that the national cause will be sacrificed to 
Whig supremacy, and that the people, who are now 
striding on to freedom, will be purchased back into 
factious vassalage. The Whigs calculate upon your 
apostacy, the Conservatives predict it." He re- 
proached the people with having been too long the 
"credulous menials of English liberalism." "The 
aristocrat of Bedford," he cried, " marshalled you 
against the plebeian of Tam worth, when you should 
have lifted up a distinct flag and have marched 
against them both." He gave a scathing review of 
the Whigs ; held out a brilliantly satirical programme 
to those who would agitate for their ascendancy, and 
pictared the great onus resting on O'Connell, by 
adroitly asking the people if it was for such ends 
they " gathered in thousands round the hill of Tara> 



O'CONNELL AND MITOHEL. 273 

and liailed their leader upon tli^ rath of Mullagh- 
mort, as the Eoraans did Rienzi in the Palace of the 
CapitoL" His M^ords created tlie highest enthusiasm 
— he was applauded to the echo, and, feeling the 
23ulse of the people riglit, he exclaimed: "I should 
not pursue this strain, knowing as I do, your deter- 
mination — knowing that you would repel the man 
who, in this Hal], would vote a compromise, and 
beat down the traitor, whoever he might be." Loud 
cheers of approval sounded the tocsin of war. 

Immediately on Mr. Meagher's conclusion, Mr. 
Thomas Steele rose in condemnation of the address. 
Poor Steele, who joined to considerable scientific 
attainments anything but a mathematical precision 
of speech, was deserving of a much better fate than 
that to which a veneration, only not sacrilegious, be- 
cause so stupid, for O'Connell destined him. Origin- 
ally a man of means and mind, the waters of agitation 
had swamped the one, and so diluted the other as 
scarcely to leave a trace of common sense. O'Con- 
nell had nicknamed him into sundry oflQces, and the 
old man gloried in being recognised as " O'Connell's 
Head Repeal Warden ;" the " Head pacificator of 
the Liberator of his country," etc. That he was 
honest his wretched poverty too plainly and sadly 
told ; but that he had become incapable of anything 
save watching the by-play of his leader, and giving 
the word to " cheer " was equally plain. Agitation 
was necessary to his existence, broken in fortune and 
hopes as it was. He fancied he was doing good, 
which fiction must be recorded to his honor; and 



274 



when O'Coiinell died, and Young Ireland was trinm- 
pliant, there being notliing for him to do, lie facili- 
tated his death by flinging himself into the Thames. 
It is impossible to view liis career without pity. He 
liad I'uined himself in forwarding the fortunes of 
the O'Connells, .^nd from them could not claim even 
a death-bed. At the period of which I speak, Mr. 
Steele was much broken down in everything save 
rhodomontade. He was, to borrow for the nonce 
somewhat of his style, a mere rhetorical wreck of an 
originally bombastic paragraph. 

He thought Meagher's address " not at all respect- 
ful to the Irish repealers and to O'Connell, their 
leader." He immediately put Meagher into the 
balance with O'Connell, and did not require the 
counsel of the former. He eulogized the "prophetic 
sapience " of the latter, whom he characterized as the 
"lay pontiff" of Catholicity — tlie " dareful champion 
of freedom " — " the august and almost sanctified 
peaceful moral force revolutionist." A debate was 
thus opened in w^hich several participated. Meagher 
had touched the sensitive spot. 

Kichard O'Gorman, considering that the time 
demanded it. took occasion to refer to the suspicions 
abroad, and followed up by asking if they should be 
content in being the "hangers-on of an English 
party," or to " rest on the fulfillment of their promises 
for our hopes of reward." 

M. J. Barry reminded the Association that he, in 
the previous week had spoken in substance nearly as 
Meagher had done that day, and that it was not t^ken 



O'CONITELL AND MITCHEL. 275 

m an insult. He could nat see that it was insultin 



o 



to O'Connell to proclaim that we had nothing to do 
with Whiggeiy." 

Mitchel, in a short but vigorous speech, supported 
Meagher. He thought it was tlie time, the day, the 
hour to enunciate sucli principles; and in defending 
the "^Nation " from the attacks of a previous speaker, 
and while repelling the rumors against O'Connell, 
rendered their open denial bj that gentleman a neces- 
sity. 

" There were rumors and there are rumors (said lie), that a 
compact of some kind was to be made with these Whigs. The 
' Nation,' to which one gentleman referred, found it stated in 
number after number of the 'Evening Mail,' that Mr. O'Connell 
said at a meeting at Lord John Kussell's, that ' all he ever wished 
Avas a real union;' and the 'Nation,' as a newspaper, professing 
Repeal principles, finding that audacious calumny in circulation, 
mentioned it merely to deny it — to deny it on the ground that 
no Repealer could use such language. The ' Nation ' was right 
in denying this. I feel quite safe for one in denying it ; for if such 
language could be held by Mr. O'Connell — if any overture could be 
made by him for a compact with any English faction whatever 
— if we were now to give any facility, directly or indirectly, to 
the government of this country by Whig or Tory — then this Asso- 
ciation commits suicide, abandons the principle which reared 
these walls around us — the principle that Ireland is entitled to 
govern herself, and shall govern herself. No, sir, the business 
of this Association is to take good care that Ireland, which was 
the ' chief difficulty ' to the Tories, shall become an utter impos- 
sibility to the Whigs." 

He believed — and many others also believed — that 
in the then attitude of the Repeal agitation, if the 



276 'ninety-eight and fokty-eight. 

necessary exertion was made, tl:e goveriiinent of tho 
country by England was impracticable. He con- 
cluded by saying : — 

"If the Repeal Association is to enter into compacts once 
more Avith factions, who will use us while they despise us ? then, 
sir, the best thing we can do is to shut up this Hall, to lock that 
door, to go home to our respective business, and for ever here- 
after to hang down our heads when men speak of honor, or 
patriotism, or truth." 

Following this scene, with but a day's intermission, 
Holmes' forcible speech was not very welcome to the 
Hall. It was too bold for the agitators, but gave 
cheer to the younger spirits. 

On the next meeting at the Hall (June 22d), the 
discussion between " Young '' and " Old " Ireland was 
resumed. A letter was read from O'Connell in Lon- 
don, in which he spoke of the efforts " made by our 
juvenile members to create dissension." The 
speakers on the previous occasion reiterated their 
sentiments on this, and repudiated the idea that they 
desired to create dissension. Mr. Doheny was pre- 
sent, and took his stand with the reviled party. He 
declared himself opposed to Whig and Tory, and to 
any connexion with either. Some wretched tools of 
O'Connell sheltering themselves beneath that gentle- 
man's letter, proceeded in stupidly laborious speeches 
to infuse much ill-feeling into the meeting. 

Kone of these people kept within the point at issue. 
They all raised a cry of treason to the Liberator, not- 

with which Mitchel, 



O CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 27? 

Meagher, O'Gonnan, Dolieny, and others stated their 
feelings and position. The object was plain. The jackal 
agitators were instructed to goad and hunt the prey up 
to the lion's paw^ — to make the quarrel worth O'Con- 
nell's w^hile to put it down. In the tirades of these 
knaves and slaves — whom I shall leave in the name- 
less obscurity from which they rose, and into which 
they have fallen — low clap-trap took the place of 
capacity, personal alnise became political analysis, 
and voluminous vulgarity revelled with the aspira- 
tions, though unrecognized, of ready wit. Now, one 
of the most turgid praised " the brilliant and hospi- 
table court of the Marquis of Normanby," and 
another, the most presumptuous and elaborately abu- 
sive, complimented the talent of Young Ireland, then 
defended the Whigs, again abused the latter and 
attacked the former with personalities ; but all 
wound up with professions, that under any govern- 
ment. Whig or Torv, the cause of Eepeal would not 
be abandoned or compromised. 

While they were forced to make this profession, 
which the Young Irelanders evoked from them, they 
attempted to cast odium on the upholders of the very 
principle under the shadow^ of which they could only 
find popular refuge. 

I have given at some length, considering the scope 
of the work, a view of the state of party and opinion 
at the beginning of open diiferences between the agi- 
tators and the men of action in the national councils. 
We shall soon see if the warning of the latter v/»^ 



278 



necessary to tlie country, and if the former were 
truckling or meant to truckle with the Wliigs. 

On June the 25tli, the government was defeated on 
the second reading of the coercion bill, by a majority 
of seventy-three, there being five hundred and eleven 
members present in the house. Sir Eobert Peel had 
left the house before the echo of its announcement 
had died. On tlie following Monday (the 27th), Wel- 
lington in the Lords, and Peel in the Commons, 
announced the resignation of tlie ministry ; and on 
July 3d the new Wliig ministry was published with 
Pussell at its head. Pichard Lalor Slieil was made 
Master of the Mint, and a vacancy thus took place in 
the borough of Dungarvan. 

Shell resigns his seat, and has firm hopes to be re- 
elected. O'Connell is in Dublin; and the Young 
Ireland party point to the chance thus given of show- 
ing opposition to the Whigs. They argue that Sheil is 
not a Pepealer. O'Connell declared Dungarvan in a 
position not fit to contest the seat — that no Kepeal 
member was fortlicoming. They point to his son 
Daniel, to Sir Col man O'Loghlin, to Meagher, but 
O'Connell will not listen — he had his mind made up. 

It was about this [)enod that, in the committee, the 
Liberator took occasion to speak of the intentions of 
the "juvenile orators " being opposed to him. They 
replied that they were antagonistic to the Whigs, 
and not to him, and that they would never fail to say 
so. It was on this occasion that Meagher's feelings 
thus broke out : "I abhor the Whigs, and shall de- 



o con:n:ell and mitchel. 279 

noiince them more bitterly than I have ever de- 
noimced the Tories. It was to obtain Irehand's 
independence, not to truckle to English factions, I 
vowed mj youth to politics. If the Eepeal Associa- 
tion fall back now, or fail, it will then be mj duty to 
preach insurrection to the countiy."* 

The Young Irelandcrs met to consider what should 
be done under the mean aspect of affairs. " It is 
clear," said John B. Dillon, " Repeal is postponed or 
abandoned to Whig promises : we must dissent, pro- 
test — everything but consent to this dastardly policy." 
From his general moderation of speech, and tenacity 
of principle, Dillon's words always commanded 
attention. He now spoke the sentiments of all. A 
line of action was adopted ; and Mitchel, Meagher, 
and O'Gorman named to fight the battle. 

In the Hall, on the 6th July, towards the close of 
a lengthy speech, O'Connell, while speaking of the 
probability of "returning Repealers for such places as 
may be " shortly vacant," was interrupted by a voice 
crying out "Dungarvan," which was followed by the 
cheers of the meeting. Thus reminded both of the 
point and its popular side, O'Connell replied in 
answer to the voice : 

" You are right — quite right. If we can get a Eepealer in for 
Dungarvan we will do it. (Loud cheering.) By this time of 
da}^ you should believe me. It shall be referred to the commit- 
tee to take into consideration the providing of candidates for the 

♦ Memoir of Thomas Francis Meagher, re-published from "The Nation" for pri- 
▼ate circulation. Dublin, 1850, p. 28. 



280 ViNETY-ETGHT AND 

vacant places. If we can get Kepealers for all those places, ^e 
shall of conrse do so, and, if necessary^ I icill go to Dungarvan 
myself. (Cheers.) / will ha/ue the men of Dungarvan with 
me; * * I -^vill not oppose men who support the present 
ministry, unless there be a chance that w^e can put in a Eepealer; 
and a S7?uill chance will le enough when the people are on our 
side^ 



Being again interrupted by a cry of " Mallow," he 
said : "Mallow is not vacant; its representative has 
not taken a place under the government^" which the 
people understood to convey a sneer at Shell, who 
had taken a place. 

Contrary, however, to all expectation, and to the 
litter disappointment of all true nationalists. Shell 
was permitted to resume, unopposed, the seat under 
the auspices of O'Connell. Thus did the latter 
break all faith with the people and the people's 
cause. 1^0 great recapitulation is necessary, but a 
few points are worth keeping before the mind's eye. 
O'Connell pledged himself to return a Eepealer, if 
he could get one ; he knew that the Whig candidate 
would have small chance, when the people were 
with him; several Repealers were willing to come 
forward ; a deputation from Dungarvan had waited 
and urged upon the Committee of the Repeal Asso- 
ciation tlie necessity of a contest, and lastl}' he knew 
that upon the registry of Dungarvan there was a 
clear nuijority of seventy in favor of Repeal; as 
reported by a barrister commissioned by the above 
committee some time previous, to visit the boroughs 



O'CO^^NfiLL A]SrD MITCHEL. 28l 

and ascertain tlie strength of the Ile]3eal cause in the 
various constituencies.* 

Is it to be marvelled at that in the knowledge of 
those facts the Yonng Ireland party should feel in- 
dignant. Could they who set out in life to write and 
speak tlie whole truth — whose great ambition it was 
to disrobe politics of the trappings in which, as a 
courtesan, it wooed and tainted the blood of the 
country — who had attained the position they occupied 
by having attempted to educate, not to blindfold the 
people^conld they remain silent, feeling the blush 
of shame upon their cheeks, and their hearts throb- 
bing against the badge of disgrace so clearly and 
designedly tightened round its national pulsation. 
They could not. O'Connell knew they w^ould not. 
He desired that they should not ; and while he feared 
their ability, imagined his popularity beyond its 
reach — his power supreme. 

With a view to their total expulsion he introduced 
into the Association, on the I3th July, what are 
generally known as the " Peace Eesolutions." 
These resolutions re-stated the original principles of 
the Association, but further declared " abhorrence of 
all attempts to improve and augment constitutional 
liberty by means of force, violence, or bloodshed — 
that to promote political amelioration, peaceable 
means alone should be used, to the exclusion of all 
others." For the introduction of these resolutions 



♦ Vide '• Nation," July 11, 1846 ; article " Dungarvan Elections," written by J. B. 
Dillon. 



282 'ninety-eight and 'foktt-]';tght. 

O'Coiniell had no ostensible reason, save in a speech 
made by Lord John Knssell in the Honse of Com- 
mons, June 1 5. After alhiding to those demanding 
a domestic parliament in Ireland, Enssell continued : 

" There are others, I fear, who, if I read rightly their senti- 
ments, as expressed in a newspaper — I will name it — called the 
" ITation," which has great circulation in Ireland, who go be- 
yond that question of the legislative union — who would write, 
not merely to have such a parliament as that which it was the 
boast of Grattan to found, and which legislated under the 
sceptre of the same sovereign as the parliament of Great Britain, 
but a party which exerts every species of violence, which looks 
to disturbance as its means, and regards separation from England 
as its end." 

At the time, O'Connell knew that this was false; 
yet afterward, (August 31st), having cited the pas- 
sage, he admitted its influence on his action. Lord 
John, he said, "was not the man to put anything 
forward to serve a party pnrpose, and was it not time 
for him (O'Connell) to take np the subject when he 
found his lordship saying that the 'Nation' had a 
tendency to separation ?" 

How complimentary to Lord John, the leader of 
the '' base, bloody, and brutal Whigs !" How con- 
sistent of the " dareful champion " to put down the 
" ISTation " when it disagreed with his lordship ! 
Certainly it was "time" for the " sanctified, moral- 
force revolutionist " to be awake. Tom Steele was 
no longer the head pacificator. O'Connell had as- 
sumed that office under the immaculate Whig chief. 



0*CONrELL AJSTD JSHTCHEL. 2S8 

But the passage quoted from Eussell's speech was 
but a plea for O'Connell, which, however, tied him 
to the Whigs while he used it against Youug Ireland. 
A plea nevertheless it was. At the time, he could 
not very consistently attack them for their opposi- 
tion to the Whigs ; but to get rid of them by some 
means he was determined. To couple them with the 
cry of war' — 'illegal agitation — physical force, he 
deemed the most expedient as well as the most effect- 
ive plan, and was led to this conclusion no doubt by 
the state to which his forty years of demoralizing 
agitation had brought the country. The people had 
supported him for that period. Would or cc nld 
they believe in driving anything more or less th&n a 
coach and six through an act of parliament? He 
thought not. 

On the strength,' therefore, of Russell's fictiuous 
announcement — without one word or act being cited 
against them to sustain tlie charge — the Young ire- 
landers were accused of a design to introduce reTolii- 
tionary ideas into the Repeal Association. As ir*em- 
bers of the Association they were walling to subscribe 
to its original principles, but refused to concur in the 
abstract principle that tlie " amelioration of political 
institutions ought not to be sought for by any other 
means " than peaceful and legal ones. O'Connell 
knew that they would not so deny history, honor, 
and manhood as to subscribe to such a creed; and, 
consequently, moved the " peace resolutions," soi he 
himself avowed on that day, " to draw a marked line 
between Young Ireland and Old Ireland " Tbo 



284 

Lord Mayor occupied the chair. With his usual 
adroitness, O'Connell, at the opening of his speech, 
flung himself on the body of the meeting and desired 
unanimous cooperation in " the great work of strug- 
gling for the nationality of Ireland." This stereo- 
typed phrase, from being so well worn, was always 
interrupted by "great cheers." It was like the 
eternal opening of Squire Topertoe's speeches — ■ 
" Here I am again, ye blaggards ; your own ould 
Topertoe" --which always put the mob in good 
humor.^ He followed by calling on them to declare 
for " peaceable but continuous agitation," to banish 
" the fiendish nonsense which suggests physical 
force ;" and reiterated his imposing promise of never 
relaxing his exertions, that is, his continuous agita- 
tion, " until he was able to walk into our own parlia- 
ment in Colle2:e Green." It is not a little dissrustins: 
that such patent clap-traps has to furnish the links 
of the political history of a decent country. 

Meagher regretted exceedingly that the battle for 
Kepeal was not fought upon the hustings of Dungar- 
van, against all odds, and in the teeth of every risk. 
He believed that if the Whig government was sin- 
cere in its professions, their measures could be passed 
without any wavering on the part of the minister, or 
any compromise on that of the Association. Warm- 
ing in debate, and, amid commingled dismay and 
confusion, he exclaimed : *' it is true, my lord, that 
bome men may desert from the national ranks, take 

• Vide Carleton's " Valentine McClutchy." 



O'CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 2S5 

place, abandon Repeal, and violate tlie national vow. 
It is the curse of society that, from principles the 
most sacred, there have ever been apostates."" 

Much uproar and interruption followed, and in the 
course of the debate O'Connell defended the accept- 
ance of government places by Repealers. 

Mitchel considered constitutional agitation as the 
basis of the Association, and as a member of it he 
subscribed to it ; but as for the abstract and universal 
principle in the resolutions — that it was essentially 
sinful and immoral to right national wrongs by the 
sword or that those who had used it should be held 
up for the abhorrence of mankind, he widely, irrecon- 
cilably dissented from that. lie referred to the 
volunteers who took up arms, and continued : 

'"Sir, I hope that in even these piping times no man will 
tell us that the volunteers of '82 were criminals and miscreants. 
America sought a political amelioration, and won it by some- 
what similar means. It was not to resist military violence they 
flew to arms ; they drew their swords against tlie preamble of an 
act of parliament — the act which declared the right of Great 
Britain to tax her colonies — and they cut both act and preamble 
into shreds, trampled them under foot, and swept them and the 
supporters of them into the Atlantic ocean. That was a noble 
deed, sir, and instead of abhorring those Americans, I honor and 
envy them. Even if we, in this Hall, passed an unanimous vote 
of abhorrence against George Washington, I apprehend that s\\ 
mankind, while the world stands, will proclaim him a hero and 
a patriot. My father, sir, was a United Irishman. The men of 
'98 thought hberty worth some blood-letting; and, altLough 

* Vide Meagher's Speech. " Nation," July 18, 1846. 



2S6 



t]iey failed, it were rather hard that one of their sons would now 
be thonglit unwortliy to unite in a peaceful struggle for the inde- 
pendence of his country, unless he will proclaim that he ' abhors ' 
the memory of his own father." 

Mitcliel was interrupted by O'Connell, who asked : 
" What can this man's object be ? He purports to be 
a man of peace, yet preaches war. ^ "^ ^ He 
talks of '98 ; why there were several good men en- 
gaged in the contest in '98, but ahis, their struggle 
was one of blood." Almost in the next sentence he 
says : " Washington bravely defended his country 
from aggression and won its independence, and that 
principle we not only recognize but are prepared to 
act upon ;" of course this was received with acclama- 
tion, which had scarcely subsided until he leaped back 
to the doctrine "that the greatest political advantages 
are not worth the sacrifice of one drop of blood." 

Well indeed might Mitchel, in that indignant but 
calmly keen spirit of sarcasm peculiar to him, ob- 
serve, when he obtained a hearing, that if the 
respected mover of the resolutions " should wish to 
embody in them the doctrine that a man who is 
struck on the one cheek is bound immediately to 
turn the other also, I for one shall have no objection ; 
I should say, let it pass, and suffer us to proceed 
with our business."* 

The peace resolutions were carried amidst " deaf- 
ening acclamation." 

O'Connell returned to London, believing that "ha 

♦ Tide "Nation" report. 



28T 



had effectually composed all differences," but finding 
from the journals, that " Young Ireland," after being, 
as he considered, " virtually expelled," still attended 
at the Hall, he wrote to the secretary of the Associa- 
tion condemning them, and instructing his son, John 
O'Connell, to re-open the discussion on the resolutions 
already adopted, with the view of ascertaining, once 
for all, who were for them, and, in the second, of 
expelling those who were not. 

In the meantime tw^o very distinguished, trusted, 
and able Irishmen, whose labors and sacrifices in 
their country's cause make it imperative to chronicle 
the fact, alluded, to the question of the day, outside the 
Hall. On the 22d July a public meeting and Eepeal 
soiree was held at Kilrush, County Clare, in honor of 
Smith O'Brien. Here that gentleman stated his dis- 
appointment at the Dungarvan election; he could 
not understand it. 

" I believe," said he, "that for repeal at the present moment, 
the influence of that election would not have been less than that 
of great Clare in '28. The election of Dungarvan has told tlie 
public men of this country, that if they wished to gain the favor 
of the Irish people, they must lend themselves to Lord John, or 
Lord George, or Sir Eobert." 

At the same place Father John Kenyon, adverting 
to the recent discussion, thought it a fanatical doc- 
trine, to say that no force but moral force should ever 
be used. A¥hen the millenium arrived it was time 
enough to revive that chapter of our thealogy. 

" Though I conceive," he said, " the moml force doctrine, as 
advanced by Mr. O'Connell, to be false and visionary, I admit 



2SS '^'INETY-EIGHT AND 

that it is a beautiful vision, and wish him all the benefit of its 
adoption. But I would never resign my right to hold the oppo- 
site doctrine, sanctioned, as I believe it to be, by the history of 
all times and countries — sanctioned by many wise men and 
noblemen, aye, and sainted men, and more harmonizing with the 
conditions of human nature, and the apparent ordinations of 
Providence." 

He would not consent, nor did he believe tlie think- 
ing portion of the Irish people would consent, to 
expel any person from tlie Association for holding 
such doctrines. 

Tlie re-introduction of the '' peace resolution " gave 
rise to a long, bitter, and brilliant debate, whicli lasted 
two daj's — the 27th and 28th Julj. It is unnecessary 
to enter into its details, after the somewhat extended, 
tliough condensed, view given of the opinions held by 
the respective parties. It will suffice to say that the 
ability and honesty displayed by " Young Ireland " 
on this occasion, gave the party so named a hold on 
the thinking portion of the island, which soon was 
productive of a healthy action. The reputation of 
the party was established. Smith O'Brien attended, 
and, with his cliaracteristic force and purity, defended 
Young Ireland. MitchePs rej^ly to John O'Connell 
was a masterpiece. It has been truly observed that " he 
met every objection, dissected every plausible pretext, 
demolished every tissue of sophistry, and placed the 
question before the meeting, in all its contemptible 
deformity.*" There was not a rhetorical flower, nor a 
stem of sentiment in it. Every sentence was an 
argument. It was eloquent with common sense. 
The speech of Meagher, more than any other he ever 



289 



delivered, Las helped to make liim famous. It was 
talked of everywhere, criticised everywhere, and is 
well known as the " sword speech," so called from 
the brilliant concluding apostrophe to that weapon. 
Korner is famed for his sword song. Meagher's 
lyrical apostrophe far surpasses ir. 

John O'Connell brought the debate to a close, by 
throwing all princijjle in the matter overboard and 
making the issue a personal one. If the Young Ire- 
land did not adopt the resolutions, they should, said 
he, " adopt another leader." 

Here Smith O'Brien left the Hall, followed by 
Mitchel, Meagher, Devin Reilly, Gavan Duff}", Father 
C. P. Meehan and others. The ladies, whose bosoms 
ever throb for liberty and the chivalry that defends 
it, left the galleries^ and a large number of people 
followed, applauding the " seceders.'' 

Thus the secession took place. 

The secretary of the Association was deluged with 
letters from all parts of the country condemning the 
course pursued by it ; and the columns of the " [N'ation " 
for months were the recipients of communications, 
the character and ability of which were sufficient 
testimony to the position and intelligence of the 
writers ; all of whom clearly, distinctly, and forcibly 
advanced arguments in favor of the new nationality 
that had come into Ireland. 

Towards the close of September some few men 
determined to remonstrate with the Repeal Associa- 
tion. They exerted influence chiefly among the 
trades, but were then unknown in public. They 



290 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

were T. M. Ilalpin, M. Crean, E. Hollywood, James 
McCormick, J. Ke-elj, P. J. Barry. They were 
neither abetted nor recognized by the Young Ireland 
party. In Thomas Devin Keilly, however, they 
found an ally. He wrote a remonstrance for them, 
to which, after working silently for a few weeks, they 
had appended fifteen hundred names of citizens of 
Dublin, who were members of the Association. On 
the 24th October the remonstrance was presented to 
tlie chairman of the Association, but was, by the 
orders of John O'Connell, flung into the gutter on 
Burgh Quay. 

The paid attaches of the Hall organized attacks on 
the members of the remonstrance committee. They 
watched and ferreted them out even in private rooms, 
and on one occasion the committee had to barricade 
themselves in a house in Wicklow street, against the 
'' peaceful " overtures of the moral force ruffians of 
the Hall. 

The remonstrants, however, were getting so strong 
that it was necessary to hold a public meeting on 
the 3d of November. Another was held on the 2d 
of December in the Rotunda, at which the leading 
seceders attended. It surpassed all anticipation. 
Crowds who could not gain admission (and amongst 
them several Catholic clergymen) surrounded the 
building, while inside, over two thousand of the most 
intelligent classes of tiie citizens, welcomed and 
endorsed the men who had dared to differ with O'Con- 
nell. 

It was a strange sight in that Irisii capital, where 
the " crownless monarcti" had ruled with more than 



AND MITCHEL. 291 

aristocratic despotism, and had sliut up men's tongues 
into their mouths, as one wouhJ close the bhide of a 
knife into its handle, just to prevent harm — it was 
truly a strange sight to see that mass of intelligent 
men and hopeful-looking, smiling women flinging off 
the old despotism of ignorant agitation, and welcom- 
ing the young apostles of education and fi-eedom of 
opinion. In the speakers every class was represented. 
The fiirmer and the merchant, the church and the 
journal, law and physic, the trader and the ti-adesman, 
w^ere identified with this noble display. Meagher 
reviewed the " battle of the forces," and impeached 
the policy of O'Connell. Dillon repelled the charges, 
wdiich for four months the Hall had only existed to utter. 
Doheny indicated hope for the future, and promised 
that they would meet the people in January to enter 
upon a new course. O'Gorman pictured the sorrow- 
ful sj)ectacle presented by the Hall, which had lived 
upon the hard-earned wages of the poor, now become 
the advertising office of men in search of plac6. 
Rev. C. P. Meehan, as a priest, defended the " I^ation " 
and its writers against the charges of infidelity heaped 
upon it and them. He amiounced that many clergy- 
men were with Young Ireland ; and the Rev. Dr. 
O'Carroll followed in the same tone, and instanced 
Bishop Blake's condemnation of O'Connell."^ Mitchel 



* The venerable Bishop of Dromore, indignant at the proceedings of Conciliation 
Hall since the secession, wrote a strong letter of remonstrance to the Association. 
This letter naturally caused desperate apprehension and dismay; and Mr. O'Con- 
nell wrote to Dr. Blake, vehemently soliciting the withdrawal of it; and enforcing 
his petition with an assurance that, " if he thought that by going on his knees from 
DuDlin to Violet Hill, he could induce his dear and venerated Lord to compY with 
bis most respectful request," he would cheerfully undergo the pilgrimage or make 



292 'ninety-eight and 

was not present, being ill : he sent a letter, the reading 
of which, say the newspaper reports of the day, " was 
frequently interrupted with loud cheering, and on 
the announcement of his name the enthusiastic 
applause did not subside for a considerable time.' 
Sucli popular indications, taken in conjunction with 
such queries as O'Connell's — " what can that man's 
object be?" are noteworthy. 

O'Connell beheld with dismay the spirit evoked by 
Young Ireland. In vain he sought to crush it, and, 
acknowledging reluctantly its power, made overtures 
of peace. Some negotiations, were entered upon, but 
all failed, and on the 13th of January, 1847, the 
seceders formed the Irish Confederation. 

It is known but to few that about this period one 
of the most eminent and distino-uished barristers in 
Dublin waited on O'Connell to impress on him the 
necessity of reconciliation and union with " Young 
Ireland." The " old man " had great esteem for the 
character and ability as well as confidence in the aid 
of the gentleman in question. He felt the full force 
of his remarks and agreed with him. His son John, 
however, who was present, flew into a passion, and 
expressed a determination to leave the country for 
ever, if his father "received" the seceders ; it would 
be a personal slight to him (John). "You see how I 
am placed," said O'Connell, and he went away to die. 

any personal saciifice his lordship would suggest." Dr. Blake consented to gratify 
Mr. O'Connell by modifying the term^ of his remonstrance, but refused to be a 
silent spectator of oppression and injustice. Accordingly he wrote a second letter, 
but, says the " Telegraph," it hkewise had its sharp points ; but the case was despe- 
rate, and tlie usual ' trick' was had recourse to. A portion, but a portion only was 
read to the Association." — Nation, Dec. 5, 1846. 



O^CONNELL AND MITCnEL. 293 

Disclaiming any antagonism to the Repeal Asso- 
ciation, tlie confederates desired to create for them- 
selves "a se23arate sphere of activity." Tliey were 
opposed to nationalists seeking office under govern- 
ment. 

All the genius and enthusiasm of the country 
rallied round tlie confederation. The songs of its 
poets, the speeches of its orators, the essays of its 
journalists have become the property of the republic 
of letters and will preserve its name. These, with the 
sufferings of its ablest tribunes and thinkers will 
weave its fortunes into the litany in which the Mar- 
tyrs to Freedom are remembered and prayed for. 

Truly it was a hopeful, as it will be a memorable 
day in the history of the island, that on which its 
youth and chivalry met to league themselves in 
brotherhood for "Love of the Grreen." Mitchel's 
speech on this occasion was one of stern purpose. 
lie reviewed the responsibility into which they were 
flinging themselves, justified the cause for which 
they assumed it, and tersely but vigorously recounted 
the facts of the question at issue, was Ireland for the 
Irish, or Ireland for the English? He told the 
people it was for the latter ; for, said he, " the nation 
that governs not itself has nothing — nothing in 
Heaven above, or in earth beneath." He showed 
how the English government treated the Irish land- 
lords and tenants as enemies to each other. " What 
is given to the one class they say must be taken from 
the other ; if we let this labor go to the landlords we 
wrons: the tenants — if to the tenants we mulct the 
landlords; so they escape Vie dilemma by giving it 



^94 



to neither." He went into the new movement like 
one whose heart was in it — and how deeply was it 
in it ! The following extract from his speech on this 
occasion exhibits the line he had marked out for 
himself: 

" I say that system of government is altogetlier intolerable ; 
and if there be common manhood or common sense remaining 
amongst Irishmen, Ave must bring it to a speedy end. Whatever 
scheme of agitation, whatever power or machinery seems most 
avaihxble for the doing of that work, it is tlie duty of us all to 
support. While tlie Union lasts it is not for Irishmen to shun 
politics, to enjoy life, and leave public cares to those who may 
undertake thera. If one organization ftiil, another must be 
created. If one weapon break in our hands we must grasp 
another. It is easy for men to say, these Irish are forever in a 
tumult of political discontent — they are naturally disaffected — 
see how they are no sooner relieved from one agitation than they 
hurry into a new one. Ah ! we have no choice. Political strife 
is our lot till we see an end of the foul and fraudulent Union ; 
other alternative there is none but eternal shame. Disaffected! 
to be sure, we are deeply disaffected. I should like to know 
which of you is well affected to a foreign government. I believe, 
my friends, the time is coming when plain speaking will be 
needed in Ireland ; and I, for one, make no scruple to say (speak- 
ing only for m3^self, and not pretending to express the sentiments 
of others) that until we have an Irish legislature I shall be irre- 
concilably disaffected towards the government of the country, 
that I mean to excite disaffection in others, and that I think it a 
sacred duty to rear up my children in that sentiment." 

The Library of Ireland still continued to be issued 
and to educate the people. Smith O'Brien addressed 
a series of statesman-like letters to the landed proprie- 
tors of Ireland ; the " Nation " issued its clarion tones 
with clearer vigor than ever. The educated young 



o'cONiSELL AND MITCHEL. ^05 



men, and the intelligent middle classes vvcre fast 
pouring into the new organization. The fact that 
laro-e bodies of " moral force men" attacked the con- 
federate meetings, and waylaid the leaders, only 
created a wider sympathy and seduced people into a 
closer analysis of their principles. 

Early in March of this year O'Connell left Ireland, 
his health having been declining for some months. 
On the 21st he set out for Rome, accompanied by his 
chaplain, Rev. Dr. Miley. On the route through 
Paris, Orleans, and Lyons, he received the attention 
of many notable personages and the homage of the 
people. lie was picking up the laurels on his way 
to the grave. He died in Genoa, on the 15th May. 

Let us confront his coffin. 

O'Connell was a much gri;ater man tlian Grattan, 
consequently his political sins fell heavier on the 
country. If he had not the intense polish and startling 
entlmsiasm of Grattan, he had a popular intensity 
which was more powerful. Grattan spoke to Grat- 
tans, and reached the people through them. O'Con- 
nell spoke to the people, and held the minor leaders 
by capturing their supporters. None of them could 
be said to have a hold, whatever might be their per- 
sonal or intellectual right to such, on the people. As 
the Irish landlords dispossess their tenantry, so O'Con- 
nell evicted the holders of political position about 
him. As the first he was merciless and unceremon- 
ious. Thus to laud O'Connell constituted a leader- 
ship in. many, to appear constantly in his train made 
obscure names tamiliar in the papers, to collect hi» 



296 



repeal rent gave local importance, and to clieer lilm 
lustily entitled others to a ''still small voice" in pub- 
lic affairs. He was tlie landlord of patriotism, and 
all others but tenants at will. 

People say what right have you, Young Ireland, to 
talk against him who obtained leave for you to 
speak. This is simply nonsense. In the first place I 
do not speak against him — but of him, historical facts 
which are common property. In the second, the 
Emancipation only gave him the right to talk. E'one 
dare " talk " of the so-called nationality but himself. 
None had the right to differ. Dr. Mackenzie says : 
" Few men so well out-argued the sophistry of tyran- 
ny," but also does well to remark that he had " the 
art of using strong words without committing him- 
self;" and that was the secret of his "continuous 
ao-itation" which midit have been "continued from 
our last" Monday, but never "concluded" during 
eternity. Talking for " liberty," he was a model 
tyrant, and preaching toleration, he never prac- 
tised it. 

When he met Ireland in public life she had a 
healthy frame — a stalwart body as his own. "When 
he left her she was also like him in being imbecile. 
His insidious arts, his glowing tongue, his oratorical 
artifices, his pathetic craft, his audacious devotion, 
his towering passion, his childlike naivete, his provok- 
ing sarcasm, his fioods of humor, his wondrous wag- 
gery, his Titan figure ; the measure of his tread, the 
suavity of his arm, the bearing of his chest, the 
roguish twinkle of his eye, won her to himself. He 



O'CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 29? 

paraded liis beauty to tlie world. But slie was only 
his mistress, not his wife. He would not shed a drop 
of blood foi- lier. 

Tom Steele, in •^ paroxysm of adoration, called 
O'Connell "the sap.ent physician for the ills of Ire- 
land." If indeed he was a physician — a " great 
medicine" (as tlie Indians say) at all; it certainly 
was of that new class who attempt a cure by the 
wilful and premeditated infliction of greater ills. As 
Paracelsus stole the ideas of Galen and Avicenna, 
then burnt their works and sneered down their cha- 
racters, so O'Connell adopted such ideas of the men 
of '98 as suited his purposes and then publicly reviled 
them. 

In his death he carried out his sectionality. He 
bequeathed his dust to Ireland, which his teaching 
had helped to make almost a desert. His heart, as 
if to identify the partisan inspiration under which it 
throbbed, he ordered to Rome. His skeleton to Ire- 
land — his fountain of life to the Eternal City. 

" Judged in his totality," wrote Father Kenyon, 
" O'Connell deserved, at the time of his death, no 
gratitude from Ireland, and was entitled to no 
respect. * * ^ His conduct was most prejudi- 
cial to the interests, and more prejudicial to the 
morals and character of his country. 

" Other patriots, struggling for riglit, had staked upon the 
issue life, and limb, and princely domains, and after years of 
hodily toil and mental agony, perished, amidst the ruins of their 
family and fortune, in the trench, or on the scaffold, or in exile, 
pinched ard lonel}', with tlie glow of their young devotion nn- 

13-^ 



^98 



dimmed by a regret. Others, again, victorious in the same 
immortal strife, now sinning as stars of human freedom and glorj 
througli the spaces of history, were invested witli a smaller lion's 
share of renown, after the consummation of their task than has 
been appropriated by O'Oonnell for his comparatively insignifi- 
cant achievement. Making all possible allowances for the danger 
of undervaluing a prophet in his own country, I cannot pesrsuade 
myself, since the scales have fallen from ray eyes, but that 
O'Connell has been grievously overrated ; and that when judged 
by Time and impartial Truth, he will be as nothing compared to 
those men of diviner mould who dared to renounce themselves 
while stamping the world with their fame."* 

In a word, O'Connell found the people with pikes 
in their hands, and he left them with petitions instead, 
in the holding up of which their strength had 
become paralj'zed ; and their brains, like their bodies, 
stagnant. 

" What a royal, yet vulgar soul !" says Mitchel, 
contemplating that able miniature drawn in the 
*' Jail Journal," " and after one has thought of all 
this, and more, what then can a man say? What 
but pray that Irish earth may lie liglit on O'Connell's 
breast, and that the good God who knew how to 
create so wondrous a creature may have mercy upon 
his soul." 

In the course of the year 184Y, Mitchel deUvered 
some lectures on the " Land Tenures of Europe," 
which wore published by the Irish Confederation and 
widely distributed. He also edited some of the 
writings of Dean Swift and Bishop Berkeley, regarding 

• Tide Letter of Father Kenyon, in " United Trisliman," Feb. 26, 1848. 



O CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 2&0 

Ireland, prepared a " Report on the Levy of Rates ic 
Ireland," wrote in the '' Nation." and otherwise was 
busilj engaged in the national cause. 

The Lectures on the Land Tenure, were of vita* 
importance to Ireland. He gave a rapid but com- 
prehensive view of the question, as it pertained to 
Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Italv, France, Spain. 
Portugal, Germany, Holland and Belgium, Sweden 
and Norway, Russia, Poland, Prussia, and Ireland. 
Believing the agriculturist to be the true pillar of the 
State, he labored to place him on that basis which 
his mission deserved. The tillers of the soil were 
other than mere slaves in his mind, and it was one 
of Mitchel's great desires to imbue into every man 
with sweated brow or brawny hand, w4io held the 
plough or swayed a sickle, the importance of his 
position, as well as to get that position recognized 
by others. He held that from the soil the income of 
every class is derived ; that, in his own words to the 
Swift club, "it is out of the produce of the soil that 
landlords receive rent, farmers profit, laborers wages ; 
it is out of that rent, profit, and wages, that profes- 
sional men get fees, shop-keepers get custom, artisans 
employment; it is out of accumulations arising from 
all those kinds of income that manufactures and com- 
merce grow." On these premises he argued that if 
the agricultural system of a country be unsound, then 
the entire structure is rotten, and will inevitably 
come down. He enlarged on these views, and from 
what then appeared (from the vile state of society as 
regarded the recognition of the working-man in Ire- 



^00 



land) startling but profoiindlj just views, the atten- 
tion of all classes, more particularly the natives of 
Ulster, was attracted to this very vital suuject. 

In the meantime, Conciliation Hall continued its 
weekly sessions, and became the last resource for 
place-hunters and office-seekers, recommending them- 
selves to government by getting np a fictitious im- 
portance on the Eepeal side. Some dribblings of 
"rent" still were collected, and John O'Connell per- 
sisted in being an " hereditary bondsman." A witty 
poet,"^ at the time, descanting on the Whig principles 
and prospects of the " Hall," its leader, and adher- 
ents, thus happily (to a popular air) hits off alt : 

" Oh ! is't not wlien Eussell's petf fish are thine own, 

And thy chin, one by one, disappear, 
That the folly and fudge of thy dupes can be known, 

To whom hunibng but makes thee more dear? 
The fool that is truly gulFd never can doubt, 

But as truly is gulPd to the close ; 
As a bull, if you once get a ring through his snout, 

Ever after is led by the nose!" 

Early in this yeai- (18iT), a meeting of nobility and 
landed proprietors took place, and from it emanated 
a Society named the "Irish Council" the first meet- 
ing of which took place on the 1st of June. The 
" Council" embraced men representing all shades of 
political faith ; and its stated objects were: the com- 
bination of Irishmen of all grades and opinions, the 



• Richard D'Alton Williams (Shamrock), 
t Plaices, perhaps. 



O'CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 301 

guardiansliip and assertion of the rights and interests 
"of onr common country," and the reflection of its 
wants and wishes : in a word, it was " to create, foster, 
and develop a sound Irish opinion." The fullest free- 
dom of discussion was recognized by it, the society 
not being compromised by any individual expres- 
sion. 

Mitchel beheld it with the fondest anticipation, 
and labored zealously to raise it to the height his 
fflowino; brain desired. The o^reat object of liis heart 
was a combination of the classes, and in the Irish 
Council he fondly hoped to iind a fearless exponent, 
as it apparently was a faithful admixture of all 
classes. His energies were unceasing, and his active 
and laborious intellect reviewed and analyzed every 
question, illustrated every resource, and suggested 
every means capable of contributing to, or accom- 
plishing the great end. lie entered into and shed a 
clearer light upon every topic of discussion, and 
was especially prominent in the advocacy of Ten- 
ant-Eight, in November, he broadly and ably 
expounded and introduced a resolution for the estab- 
lishment of the system, which was defeated by a 
majority of two. 

He labored earnestly, but in vain. His facts were 
patent, his arguments undenied, because undeniable. 
His hearers listened, but did not progress. The 
Council was more the critic of the English parlia- 
ment than the advocate of an Irish one. It would 
not go beyond a certain distance ; and, lilce a tethered 
ram, butted its head against the bare ground, having 



302 



nibbled to the very roots the pasture within the range 
of rope allowed it. 

In vain Mitchel pointed to the two years' famine, 
and the lieartless State-craft that had accelerated it, 
and made the world weep and shudder over the Irish 
graves of Irish millions. It listened, but still, as a 
body, the Council was opposed to Tenant-Right, the 
only measure calculated to endow the peasant with 
prosperity — or even potatoes. He was too far above 
the Council to drag it up to him ; it became a con- 
clave of talkers, and movers and seconders, constantly 
"reporting" to the government ills and grievances 
which the State having conferred, had no desire to 
cure. Coercion was the eternal prescription of the 
ministerial doctoi-s. They woukl never consent to 
transfer the rights of the landlords to the tenants, "as 
some proposed ;" the disorders of Ireland were deep- 
rooted, to be sure, but coercion would eradicate the 
disease.* Aye, it would be better for the govern- 
ment to "outrage the constitution," f than that 
" the present state of affairs " should continue in Ire- 
land. In this cry, the sons of two " liberators " of 
Ireland, J and the voices of others — Irish Repeal 
hacks — joined. 

Thus, between London and Dublin, Mitchel could 
only see outrage on the one hand, and cowardice on 
the other. He saw that " legal and constitutional " 

* See Speech of Sir George Grey, moving for leave to bring In the Coercion 
(Agrarian outrages) Bill in Commons, Nov. 29th, 1847. 
+ Words of Lord Barnard. 
X Henry Grattan, sen of "82," and M)rgan J. O'Connfill. 



O'CONNELL AJN^D MITCHEL. 303 

means were as ineffectual out of, as in Conciliation 
Hall. He saw that it was useless to waste more 
time attempting to conciliate the landlords or argue 
with the aristocracy ; that the former were but the 
Sepojs of the State, and the latter the Coolies of the 
cabinet. Now was it palpable how " Old Ireland " 
had sold the country to the Whigs, and the indignant 
tone of " Young Ireland " justified. Coercion turned 
out to be one of the " twelve beneficial measures " 
promised by Lord John Eussell. Instead of giving 
" extended franchise," and " generous landlord and 
tenant" accommodation, as promised, the Wliig 
government raised the cry of "Agrarian Outrage." 
Mitchel explained it in the Confederation. His reply 
is the history of the time, and cannot be imj)roved by 
condensation. 

" There has been nothing " (said he) " to prevent or delay all 
that beneficial legislation we heard so much of. There has been 
no lack of patience and quietness — far too much patience and 
qnietness — nnmanly, unchristian, inhuman patience and quiet- 
ness. * * * From one end of the island to the other they (the 
Whig Ministers) have dug the public highways into trenches 
and pit-falls. They have looked on at landlord exterminations, 
far more sweeping than which scandalized them while in opposi- 
tion — they have helped the extermination themselves by their 
mode of administering relief in the famine — they have swept the 
small farmers by tens of thousands off their fjxrras to the public 
works ; and then, upon a signal from London, those said public 
works have disgorged in one day seventy thousand, in another 
day a hundred and twenty thousand famit^hing and homeless 
men, and cast them forth upon the wide world to beg, or rob, or 
perish, as they might. And now men are amazed that the land 



30:1: 



is stained with crime. But that was not all; for all this time 
landlords were enforcing wiiat are called in parliament their 
legal rights — that is to say, n;aking the land, notwithstanding 
the hlight upon its produce, paj^ them their rents as usual, ay, 
tJiough the tenant should go home that night to his family with 
no provision betw^een him and death but a stamped receipt — 
and the liberal ministers, the enlightened, well-intentioned min- 
isters, looked on at all this for eighteen weary months, pretend- 
ing they were govei'ning the country ; until now, when one- 
eiglith of our people have perished by the most hideous of deaths, 
and most of the survivors are in a life-and-death struggle for the 
residue of the food that English greediness has spared them — 
when the poor rates and the landlords together are engaged in 
clearing, as Ireland was never cleared before ; and there are 
hundreds of thousands of wretched paupers who have not where 
to lay their heads ; it seems there is crime, and outrage, and 
bloodshed ; some few of the able-bodied paupers have turned 
out able-bodied robbers — red-handed murderers, as might have 
been expected ; and these amiable Whig statesmen, in this age 
of what they call enliglitenment and human progress ; these 
men, so profound in sanitary conditions of towns, so far before 
the rest of the w^orld in political economy, and general benevo- 
lism, have nothing to propose for the good government of Ire- 
land but the old and well-known remedies of the bayonet, the 
jail, and the gibbet."* 

To meet the "bayonet, jail and gibbet," the only 
resource was revolution, and a preparation there- 
for the only "agitation" which held out any hope 
to Mitchel. The Confederation had prospered be- 
yond all expectation, and he thought some sterling 
use should be made of it. He felt that writing and 
speech-making might go on till doomsday without any 
result beyond gaining a literary and "Dratorical repu 

* Speech in the " Irish Confederation," December 1st, 184T. 



305 



tation for the parties concerned. Violent charges 
had been made — witli steel pens, and much ink 
spilled ; fields of paper captured and sentineled with 
leading articles. In fact, England had been over-run 
on paper, in prose and poetry ; but with the increas- 
ing reputation, tlie Confederation was not holding up 
with the necessities of the day. Its members seemed 
very busy organizing debating and lecturing, and its 
council became a sort of reputable political tread- 
mill on which every one kept moving without gain- 
ing a single foot. 

As '48 came in, Mitchel marched out of the " Na- 
tion " ofiice. 

The '^iNTation" and the Confederation were each 
the organ of the other. The Confederation was the 
"Nation" in the forum. The "Nation," the Con- 
federation in the green-room. The writers of the one 
were omtors in the other ; and all the orators of the 
latter were contributors to the former. They w^ere 
w^orthy of each other ; and the men (with one or two 
exceptions) quite capable of both capacities. The 
"Nation/' up to this period, w^as the greatest journal 
ever produced in Ireland, and one of the noblest in 
the world ; the Confederation the most brilliant of 
political associations. 

For some months, Mitchel, who for two years had 
written the "Nation" into its proud attitude, w^as 
precluded from speaking through its columns, the 
proprietor objecting to the "seditious" nature and 
bold tone of his essays. "This kind of restriction, 
slight and casual at first, became gradually more con- 



306 'ninety- EIGHT AND 'fORTY-EIOHT. 

stant and annoying," while the times demanded 
" more and more unmitigated plain speaking." 
Mitchel desired to warn his countrjnnen against 
delivering up their guns to the police, as they would 
" be putting weapons into the hands of their deadly 
enemies, and committing virtual suicide " — to show 
them tliat the country was actually in a state of war, 
" a war of ' property ' against poverty — a war of ' law ' 
against life ; and that their safety lay, not in trusting 
to any laws or legislation of the enemy's parliament, 
but solely in their determination to stand upon their 
own individual rights, defend them to the last, and 
sell their lives and lands as dear as they could."* 

Mr. Duffy, a man of considerable talent, superficial 
culture and profound weakness — who imagining him- 
self a statesman, ever had on hand a " policy," forget- 
ful that honesty should be the chief characteristic of a 
patriot, — was incited to diflPer with Mitchel. If the 
*' Nation " preached such doctrines, it might be put 
down, and the " Nation " was a good property to Mr. 
Duffy. Into Mr. Duffy's ear, this fact, and the fic- 
tion that he, Duffy, could dictate a " policy " for the 
country, were hissed by an ambitious subordinate, 
and the employer, neither proof against faction 
nor flattery, consented to make an issue with 
Mitchel. 

Mitch el's letter, of Tth January, 1848, to Mr. Duffy, 
resigning connection with the " Nation," stating the 



* Letter of John Mitchel to 0. Q. Duffy, Jan. Tth, 1848. The letter complete may 
b« found in the notes accompanying " Meagher'a Speeches," p. 208. 



AND MITCHEL. 307 

reasons and giving an outline of the difference which 
led to it, appeared and excited the strongest interest 
and anxiety. He there stated that he had made up 
his mind that the '^ Nation " and tlie Confederation 
should employ themselves in promulgating military 
instruction, ''not with a view to any immediate 
insurrection, but in order that the stupid ' legal and 
constitutional ' shouting, voting and 'agitating' that 
have made our country an abomination to the whole 
earth, should be changed- into a deliberate study of 
the theory and practice of guerilla warfare ; and that 
the true and only method of regenerating Ireland, 
might, in course of time, recommend itself to a nation 
so long abused and deluded by ' legal ' humbug. 
When you informed me," he continues, " that the 
columns of the ' E"ation ' should no longer be open 
even to such a modified and subdued exposition of 
my doctrines as they had heretofore been, I at 
once removed all difficulty." 

This disagreement suggested the necessity of draw- 
ing up a programme of guidance for the Confedera- 
tion. A committee was appointed. It was drawn 
up. It was the " Nation " answering Mitchel. The 
latter objected to it on principle, and a long and ear- 
nest debate ensued. One party seemed to think the 
resources of Conciliation Hall not yet exhausted — 
they talked of the force of opinion ; Mitchel believed 
in "public opinion with a helmet on its head." 
Devin Keilly strenuously advanced MitchePs ideas ; 
he read but one lesson in the history of the United 
Irishmen, or at the grave of St. Michans " that men 
should spring up to die, if necessary, that on that 



808 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

tomb there might be an inscription." Concluding his 
speech, Mitchel warned the Confederation, and pic- 
tured the agitator's legacy thus : — 

" And now I say, adopt these resolutions and you seal the 
fate of the Confederation ; you make it merely one of the long 
series of moral force agitating associations that have plagued 
Ireland for forty years. Adopt these, and all the world will see 
that you have thrown the people overboard to conciliate the 
gentry. If you pass these resolutions you may as well write on 
your walls, at one side, 'Patience and Perseverance,' at the 
other, 'the man who commits a crime, gives strength to the 
enemy.'* And so you may count upon a seven years' course of 
organizing, agitating, and speechifying ; and at the end of tliat 
time you can begin again, and try another seven years. The 
thing will last your time, and dying in a good old age, 
you will leave to your children a noble legacy of Confederate 
Cards." 

But men, not principles, were swaying the Society, 
and Mitchel and Keilly retired from its ranks. 

On the 12th February, 1848, Mitchel started the 
" United Irishman," to promulgate the principles 
which he considered alone beneficial to Ireland. His 
forcible style, his boldness, his honesty soon found 
readers in every corner of the island. The circula- 
tioTi of his journal attained an unexampled width. 
The vigorous pen of Devin Reilly in politics and 
literature — the poetry of Mangan and " Mary," who 
retired from the columns of the "E'ation," and has 
entirely ceased to write since Mitchel's banishment, 
made it the most powerful exponent of Republican 
faith, and the sternest adviser of Republican desires. 

* The mottoes posted in Conciliation Hall. 



309 



A century and a quarter had passed since the 
letters of " M. B. Drapier " drew " papist, fanatic, 
Tory and Whig " nnder his banner, and made Swift 
" the idol of the people of Ireland to a degree of 
devotion, that in the most superstitious country 
scarce any idol ever obtained."* 

Exactly one hundred years had rolled over since 
diaries Lucas poured out his addresses to the " free 
citizens and free-holders of Dublin," and from the 
flames to which the public hangman had consigned 
the writings of Molyneux, snatched a brand to 
re-state and re-illumine the case of Ireland. Fifty 
years had gone by since Tone died like the Roman 
on his own sword, and cheated the English out of 
exhibiting their greatest enemy on the scaffold. 
And almost twenty years of gusty rhodomontade, in 
the name of " civil and religious liberty," had well 
nigh blown away the landmarks of Irish nationality, 
when this " United Irishman " came upon the scene, 
and by a wonderful combination of the faculties of 
the great dead, brought their purposes into the brains 
of living men. 

" Our independence must be had at all hazards. If the men 
of property will not support us, they must fall: we can sup- 
port ourselves by the aid of that numerous and respectable 
class of the community, the Men of no property.''^ — Theobald 
Wolfe Tone. 

Under this motto Mitchel addressed a series of 

• John, ESarl of Orrery. 



310 



letters' to Lord Clarendon, and the Protestant far- 
mers of Ulster, which created the most intense 
excitement. A guard of policemen was necessary to 
keep order around his office, the demand for the 
paper was so great. The anxiety to know " what 
Mitchel said " was so wide-spread, that " it was 
eagerly bought in the streets of Dublin at Is. 6d. and 
2s. a number."* The success of his writings was 
instantaneous. One of the writers of the " ISTation '^ 
himself, he no sooner left that paper and spoke as 
himself, than he created a more distinct feeling, a 
more tangible sympath}^, and, necessarily, a greater 
national partisanship than had ever been accorded ta 
that famous journal. The songs of the " Kation '^ 
might inspire, the essays strengthen, and the litera- 
ture seduce the minds of readers, but their nation- 
ality was comparatively undefined. This was a 
necessity of the time. The songs and essays were 
deeply, heartily, beautifully national, because they 
were intensely Irish — -as much so as the hills and 
valleys, as the mechanics and peasantry ; but the 
end thereof was not broadly and distinctly written 
until Mitchel told the people that the life of a 
peasant was equal to the life of a peer, that he was 
"not wedded to the Queen of England, nor unaltera- 
bly attached to the House of Brunswick " — that " he 
loved his own barn better than he loved that house " 
— tliat " the time was long gone by since Jehovah 



• 8TJ<Sc. and 60c. American. See Lord Stanley's (the present Karl of Derby's) 
■peech In the House of Lords, Feb. 24, 1848. 



MITCHEL. 311 

anointed kings," and that " in the sovereign people 
he alone beheld divine right." Doheny once said, 
" The disaffection of Ireland is immortal." The qnick 
eifect of Mitchel's writings proved it. All other 
pnblications stood still. The ^' United Irishman " 
absorbed all attention. The poor clubbed to buy it ; 
the rich bought it at a premium ; some journals 
made a stir by criticising it, and the Earl of Derby, 
then Tory leader of the opposition, brought it into the 
House of Lords, agitated the insipid placidity of that 
conclave by reading lengthy extracts, and reminding 
the house that its writers were " not the kind of men 
who make their patriotism the means of barter for 
place or pension ;" that " they were not to be bought 
off by the government of the day for a colonial place, 
or by a snug situation in the customs, or excise" — • 
asked the government if it had taken the matter into 
consideration. The Marquis of Lansdowne, on the 
part of her Majesty's ministers, affected to treat the 
paper with indifference— but for how long will be 
seen. 

The clearness with which Mitchel treated every 
subject, and the natural arguments with which he 
supplied the simplest mind gave the greatest shock 
to the enemy. Every sentence was as strong, as 
keen, and as polished as steel. 

A farmer named Boland, who held and cultivated 
twenty acres, was, with his family, found dead in 
their beds, of starvation. Mitchel, reviewing the fact, 
brought the case and its preventive to the compre- 
hension of every smair farmer and tenant in the land. 



312 



"Now," said he, "what became of poor Boland's twenty 
acres of crop ? Part of it went to Gibraltar to victual the garri- 
son — part to South Africa to provision the robber army ; part 
went to Spain to pay for the landlord's Avine — part to London, 
to pay the interest of his honor's mortgage to the Jews. The 
English ate some of it — the Chinese had their share ; the Jews 
and Gentiles divided it amongst them, and there was none for 
Boland. 

" The plain remedy for all this — the only way you can save 
yourselves alive — ^is to reverse the order of 'payment^ to take and 
ke^p, out of the crops you raise, your own subsistence, and that 
of your families and laborers, first. * * * If it needs all 
your crop to keep you alive, you will be justified in refusing and 
resisting payment of any rent, tribute, rate, or taxes whatsoever. 
* * * To do this effectually, you must combine, as I said, 
with your neighbors ; you must form ' voluntary defence asso- 
ciations,' such as the Chief Justice recommends, in order to 
help you to repel all depredators; and you must le armed. 
' When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in 



Towai-ds the conclusion of the same letter, he 
says : — 

" But I am told it is in vain to speak thus to you ; that the 
' peace policy ' of O'Connell is dearer to you than life and honor 
— that many of your clergy, too, exhort you rather to die than 
violate what the English call ' law ' — and that you are resolved 
to take their bidding. Then die— die in your patience and per- 
severance ; but be well assi red of this — that the priest who bids 
you perish patiently amidst your own golden harvests, preaches 
the gospel of England, insults manhood and common sense, bears 
false witness against religion, and blasphemes the Providence of 
God."* 

• LetUrs to the Small Farmers of Ireland. No. II. March 4, 1848. 



313 

The European revolutions, and especially the three 
days of Paris, which sent the throne into a bonfire 
by the light of which the Republic was proclaimed 
gave a fresh impetus to the Confederation, and but 
ratified the republican indications of Mitchel. The 
fire of European Democracy inflamed the speech of 
Confederate orators, into a revolutionary rivalry with 
the " United Irishman." On the 21st March, Mitchel 
O'Brien, and Meagher were arrested, on a charge 
of sedition, and bail accepted for their appearance at 
the Court of Queen's Bench, on the first day of the 
approaching term. This proceeding but awakened 
the popular sympathy still more, and in almost every 
town in the counti-y, the Nationalists, by meetings 
*nd addresses, gave expression to their faith in tho 
irrested parties. The Confederate Clubs of Limer- 
ick invited them to a banquet, which was rendered 
memorable by a desperate assault made on tlie place 
of meeting by the adherents of the O'Connellite 
party, instigated, as has been sufiiciently well proved^ 
by a clergyman. The whole movement was directed 
against Mitchel, for the boldness with which the 
writers in his paper had analyzed and exposed the 
'^llacies of the " Liberator's " policy. It was not 
until some shots were fired from the interior of the 
building that the mob desisted. 

Again deputations and addresses poured in uj^od 
the parties who had so narrowly escaped the mob 
all of which renewed their expressions of faith ir 
them, and cheered them with the fact that neither 
" the slander nor the bludgeons of castle hirelings, 

14 



314 ^NINETY-EIGHT AND 'fORTY-EIGHT. 

would efiace the people's estimation of their personal 
sacrifices or pnblic services.* 

But matters were quickly coming to a climax. 
The government trembled in dismay. Something 
must be done, and that quickly. 

On the 10th of April, Sir George Grey introduced 
tlie Treason-Felony Act into the Commons, and on 
the 25th, it passed the Lords. It was notoriousiv 
framed to put down Mitcliel, and by making sedition 
treason, and treason felony, it was hoped that patriot 
ism would shrink from the stigma. The govern 
ment, while it " gagged " speech, on the one hand, 
hoped to make patriotism, for such as indulged in it, 
a " deed without a name," on the other ; as thougli, 
if they called Algernon Sydney a thief, and Jefferson 
a felon, it could make tliem so in the eyes of historv 
and the world.f 

Under the provisions of this Act, Mitchel wa^ 
arrested on Saturday evening. May 13th, and com- 
mitted to Newgate on two charges of felony. 

" Mitchel is arrested !" consternation and hope 
fought with each other in spreading the news. 

The words made young men leap from their seats 



• Address of the Irish Students aj O'Brien, Meagher and Mitchel. 

t The bill enacted, that whoever should levy war against the Queen, compa'JS- 
imagine, divine, endeavor, &c., to deprive her of her style, title, royal dignity, 
&c. ; or who should by open and advised speaking, printing or publishing, incite 
othe-s to do so, was guilty of felony, and was liable to transportation beyond the 
8ea for the term of his or her natural life, or for a period of not less than seven 
years. This enactment also embodied an Act of the 25*, Edward III., by which 
creiy prindpra in the seo id degrje, and every accessory before the fact, came 
under the liabilities of the -inc'pal, and every accessory after the fact was made 
punishable by Inpriso'in-entr-with or without bard lab-»r fo^ twc years. 



315 



and involuntarily la)^ hands upon their weapons in 
their secret places. They naturally thought that noifii 
at last, there would be use for them. 

The students, who felt proud of Mitchel as c^« 
great intellectual representative of their class^ and 
who desired to rival their brothers in Paris, Berlin 
and Yienna, in defence of patriotism and education, 
brightened into an almost wordless enthusiap.m. The 
rifles were taken down from the bookshelves. 

The temporary passion filled to surfeiting many a 
half-fed mechanic in his garret ; a 1 wrangled in 
maledictions through the prayers of Sunday. 

There was a bright vein of arms and ammunition 
shooting through society. Every one felt the electric 
shock. 

The general spirit of the Confederate Clubs was 
in favor of a rising — the more republican insisted 
on a rescue. But the Council of the Confederation 
wavered, and finally determined to prevent it. In 
vain Devin Reilly cried " I have one life to lose, and 
I am prepared to lose it — let others do the same and 
swear the same !" A few clubs were with him ; but 
those men who exerted the greatest influence, out- 
argued them as a body. Some of those men as 
Meagher, O'Brien, Dillon, O'Gorman, acted on the 
r»o}wiction, honestly arrived at, that the harvest 
would offer tlie best chances for revolution ; others, 
it is bnt too truly feared, acted through a jealous}^, 
which neither a common cause could modify, nor a 
common enemy make just to the great captive.* 

^stance ot this, I will state that on it. ^\h May, the 



SIC 'ninety-eight and 

Mitcliel was brought to trial on the 26th, found 
guilty on that evening at seven o'clock, sentenced to 
fourteen years' banishment the next morning, and 
before the echo of the "proceedings" subsided in 
tlie Court, the prisoner was carried off in chains, put 
on board a steamer and bound for the convict depot 
at Spike Island. 

On the trial, Mitchel was defended by Eobort 
Holmes, who once again, like tlie ghost of '98, stood 
up to upbraid the moqkery of Englisli law in Irelav.d. 
The closing scene was worthy of both advocate and 
client. In it '48 proved worthy of being detended 
by '98. The presence and speech of Holmes were 
equally inspirino-, the one dignifying the other by 
wrapping the necessities of the present, with the 
classic fervor of antiquity. What memories must 
have throuDed through him. He had not entered 
that court-room for half a century. The brother of 
his wife had left that dock in which Mitchel stood, 
for the scaffold. He avowed the principles of 



Club " sent an address to O'Brien, Meagher and Mitchel. The " Nation" did not, 
nor would not print it; the only ost,?nsible reason appearing to be that Mitchel 
was mentioned. The matter was discussed in the Club, and as secretary, 1 was 
deputed to wait on the " Nation." I did so twice. On the first occasion, " crowded 
columns " evaded the truth ; on the second, considerable vexation at the demand 
of the students was manifested, with a promise, however, that the address would 
appear, which it never did in the " Nation." It published Mr. O'Brien's reply, 
thereby conveying the idea that he alone was addressed. Of the hopefulness with 
which the Club was view(;d, it may be just to remark, that the president, secretary, 
and one member from the body, were invited to seats in the Council of the Confede- 
ration. Mitchel, Dufify, Martin and others, became members to show their appre- 
ciation of it, but did not attend. Of the working members, Kevin O'Doherty was 
afterwards transported ; R. D. Williams imprisoned, tried and acquitted ; J. de 
Courcy Young imprisoned; Walter T. Meyler imprisoned, and Dr. Antisell and 
myself obliged to fly to America. 



O'OONNELL AND MITCHEL. 317 

Mitchel — he assumed their responsibility — that the 
prjsoiier was not morally guilty— that Ireland was 
eiislaved ; and being interrupted by Baron Lefroy, 
exclaimed that " he could not do justice to his client 
without doing justice to Ireland." 

An American clergyman present at the trial, has 
given us his impressions of that speech. " It remina ■ 
ed me," he writes, " and I speak it reverently, of the 
defence of Saint Paul before Agrippa ; except, in 
that case, the heathen monarch paid more deference 
to the rights and argument of tlie prisoner than was 
manifested on this occasion. * * * There is a 
divinity in words, when fitly spoken, which is irre- 
sistible. I never felt the power of eloquence as I 
felt it then."^ 

The solemn hush that anticipated the sentence and 
met it, changed into a murmuring sensation like the 
indications of a storm at sea. "Silence'* was de- 
manded by the sheriff, and in the midst of a breath- 
less, though startling calm, the distinct and firm 
voice of the prisoner was heard : — 

" Tlie law has now done its part " (he said) and the Queen of 
England, her crown and government in Ireland, are now secnre, 
' pursuant to act of parliament.' I have done my part also. 
Three months ago I promised Lord Clarendon and his govern- 
ment, who hold this country for the English, that I would pro- 
voke him into his courts of justice, as places of this kind are 
called, and that I would force him, pubhcly and notoriously, to 
pack a jury against me to convict me, or else that I wo^jld walk 

• " Ireland, as I saw it.'» By Wm. S. Balch. N. Y., 1860. 



318 



& free man, out of this court, and provoke him to a contest in 
another field. My Lords, I knew I was setting my life on that 
cast; but I knew that, in either event, victory should be with 
me —and it is with me. Neither the jury, nor the judges, nor 
any other man in this court presumes to imagine that it is a 
criminal who stands in this dock (murmurs of applause, which 
the police endeavored to repress). I have shown what the law 
is made of in Ireland. I have shown that her Majesty's govern- 
raent sustains itself in Ireland by packed juries — by partisan 
judges — by perjured sheriffs — 

After an interruption from Baron Lefroj — who 
" could not sit there " to suffer the prisoner at that bar 
to utter very nearly a repetition of the offence for 
which he had been sentenced — Mitchel proceeded : 

" What I have now to add is simply this — I have acted a«l 
through this business, from the first, under a strong sense or 
^aty. I do not repent anything I have done, and I believe that 
the course which I have opened is only commenced. The Roman 
who saw his hand burning to ashes before the tyrant, promised 
*tlt three hundred should follow out his enterprise. Can I not 
Frt-nnise for one, for two, for three ?" 

Indicating as he spoke, Heilly, Martin and Meagher. 
— " Promise for me " — " and me '■ — '* and me, Mitch- 
el," rose around him in commingled tones of earnest 
solemnity, passionate defiance and fearless devotion, 
^rom his friends and followers : and embracing the 
exciting scene in a glance, Le cried with proud 
eagerness : 

" For one, for two, for three ? Ay, for hundreds !" 

A scene of intense excitemeni* followed, in the 

fuitlst of which the iudgres fled fn «i the bench, the 



319 



^>rison«^r i&as huddled off, waving his hand to his 
friends; t-^'o of whom, Meagher and Doheny, were 
iiTested for giving vent to the feelings impossible to 
uippreGS at such a moment. 

After they had been discharged, and when order 
was restored. Holmes rose to add his defiance to that 
)f the prisoner ; as if in utter contempt of the mock- 
ery of law in Ireland, making the defiance surrounded 
Dy that law's representatives. He said : 

" My lords, I think I had a perfect right to nse the language I 
did yesterday. I wish now to state tliat what I said yesterday, 
as an advocate, I adopt to-day as my own opinion. I here avow 
all T have said ; and perhaps, under the late act of parliament, 
her Majesty's Attorney-General, if I have violated the law, may 
think it his duty to proceed against me in that way. But if I 
have violated the law in anything I said, I must, with great 
respeo/- to the court, assert that I had a perfect right to say what 
I stat<id ; and I now say in deliberation, that the sentiments I 
expr*;*sed with r^^ard to England, and her treatment of this 
country, are my sentiments, and I here avow them openly. The 
Attorney-General is present — I retract notliing — these are my 
A^ell-judged sentiments — these are my opinions, as to the rela- 
tive position of England and Ireland, and I have, as you seem to 
insinuate, violated the law by stating those opinions. I now 
deliberately do so again. Let her Majesty's Attorney-General do 
his duty to his government, I have done mine to my country." 

As of Cicero, it may be said of Holmes, that, as 
years advanced upon him, he seemed to grow more 
th<^n ever superior to those fears which more than 
locks of grey are too commonly incident to age. 

The extracts given sufficiently well indicate the 
principles and purposes of Mitchel. Of the men of 



320 NINETY-EIGHT AND FORTY-EIGHT. 

the movement and time, lie was the grandest, the 
most elevated, the mildest, and the most determined. 
It has been remarked, that if he was not the most 
distinguished man of the Confederation, he was its 
soul : he was chief of its committees, and its chief 
thinker. But while dissecting questions of a purely 
practical bearing, he had a soul as sensitive to the 
beauties and solace of nature as Burns himself. I 
remember Joseph Brenan's writing an article to 
prove Mitchel a poet, which could be well appre- 
ciated by those who knew the subject of it. To this 
combination of the piaotical in action, and the poetic 
in sympathy, coupled of course with the mutual 
attraction of g>nius, no doubt is owing the friendship 
and respect, notwitiistanding the great political diver- 
sity of opinion existing between, Thomas Carlyle and 
Mitchel. No doubt the " wee, modest, crimson-tip 
ped flower " was a magic link between them in their 
walks and talks about the Dublin mountains. 

As a politician, Mitchel has no claims to recogni- 
tion. As a statesman, in the too common reading of 
that term, his claims are scarcely more recognizable. 
As a patriot, he will live. If Algernon Sydney and 
Patrick Henry were statesmen, Mitchel will rank as 
one. 

Between O'ConneL and Mitchel, there is even a 
greater difference than that which I have instanced 
in my comparison between Grattan and Tone ; inas- 
much as, that while Mitchel renewed the purposes of 
Tone, O'Connell was far behind Grattan. Gratliin 
incited an army of over 100,000 men, with weapona 



O'OONNELL AND MITCHEL. 321 

in their bands. He would have used them for hisj 
purpose, though not for the separation of Irehand 
from England. O'Oonnell, for his purpose, was 
utterly opposed to force. To him liberty was not 
worth the powder — notliing when weighed against 
the " villainous saltpetre." 

After Mitel lel's banishment, the action of the 
Council of the Confederation was generally and 
undisguisedly condemned. Dissatisfaction followed 
the disgrace of not attempting a rescue. Deputies 
from the clubs were summoned, they met, and the 
council wa-p' unanimously reduced to twenty-one.* 
Everything w^ore a stern, defiant and exasperating 
aspect. Tlie scenes at the clubs became of the most 
exciting and revolutionary nature. There was one 
universal word — arm — that linked their proceed- 
ings, and now they lo(^ked passionately forward to 
the harvest, to retrieve the degradation of Mitchel's 
banishment. Two republican journals rushed into 
the gap, made by the proscription of the " United 
Irishman," to continue its principles and sacrifice 
noble men to them. 

On the 10th June, ^'The Irish Tribune " was issued 
by the chief members of the Student's Club, to sus- 
tain the enthusiasm, and keep up, or at least to echo, 
the tone in which Mitchel spoke. The stock was 

* The following are the names, alpliabetically arranged of the persons chosen: 
M. J. Bany, John Barry, Robert Cane, M. D., and J. P.; James Cantwell, Michae) 
Crean, B. Bowling, J. B. Dillon, Charles G. DuCfy, Michael Doheny, Daniel Griffin, 
Rev. John Kenyon, Denny Lane, Thomas Francis Meagher, John Martin, Francis 
Morgan, W. S. O'Brien, M. P.; Richard O'Gorman, John O'llagan, P. J. Smyth, 
J»mes Rainor, R. D. Williams. 



322 



issued in sliares, and owned by Kevin O'Dolierty, 1 
D'Alton AYillianis, Dr. Antisell, J. l)e Courcy Young, 
Walter T. Meyler, myself and two others.* Michael 
Dolieny and Stephen J, Meaiiy, with the proprietor>, 
wrote the paper. 

On the 2-ith June, " tlie Irish Felon" appeared; 
it was conducted by John Martin, Thomas Devin 
Reilly, Fenton Laloi", and Joseph Brenan, whose 
names are a sufficient guaranty of both the power 
and i"epiiblicanisni with which it was written. Mar- 
tin Mac Dermott and De Jean Fraser also contributed 
to it. 

The appearance of those journals created an excite- 
ment not less than that of their great predecessor 
Early copies readily brought twice and three times 
the publishing price ; and, becoming " scarce " when 
a day old, their value ofren run up to half a crown 
and three shillings a copy. The street in which both 
were published was one scene of excitement and 
trouble between the police, the nationalists, the 
newsvenders, and the crowd led by curiosity to the 
locality. In the provincial towns the weekly appear- 
ance of the papei'S was looked for with the intensest 
eagerness, and created a repetition of the enthusiasm, 
clamor, and excitement of the metropolis. In and 
about Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and other 



• Both of those gentlemen are distinguished ; one of them remarkably so in th« 
scientific world. As tlieir names have not been made public in connection with the 
movements of '48, and as they rosiJe in Dublin, it is not for me to publish them. 
Among the prosecuted articles in the "Tribune" were two of which they were tU« 
authors. 



O'CONNELL AND MITCIIEL. 523 

^ji^lisli and Scotch towns where tliero were luvge 
.'ongregations of Irish and Chardsts the like scenes 
were enacted ; nor was London wholly free from the 
anticipations of revolution. 

The principles and popularity of these journals were 
of too decided a character to enjoy long life. Their 
exuberance of passion, power and hanglity defiance, 
forced the " Nation " into a bolder tone than nsual ; 
and on the 8th July the registered proprietors of all 
were seized and committed to Kewgate. Martin, for 
whom a warrant had been issued for some time, sur- 
rendered at tw^elve o'clock. Duffy was arrested at 
seven in the evening, at his house at E-anelagh ; 
O'Doherty was taken at ten at night, and at the 
same hour Denis Hoban, the nominal printer of the 
*' Tribune," was seized. On the next morning (Sun- 
day), Williams was discovered and arrested at the 
house of Doctor Antisell.- On Saturday evening the 
offices of the " Nation " and '^ Felon" were ransacked ; 
and at midnight a descent w^as made on the " Tri- 
bune," by the police, who seized the manuscripts of 
all the editoral articles and letters published in that 
journal since it was started. 

Autographs became valuable witnesses ; types 
w^ere smashed, for that they were accessories both 
before and after the act of publication ; and in the 
streets frequent collisions took place between the 
" delegated aucliorities" and the venders of the penny 
publications- that floated gallantly under heavy 
freights of treason-felony. 

* The "National Guard " by Jas McCormick, and the "Young Irishman" by Q 



H9A 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

'.rhe clubs were niglitly crowded, and their orators 
were more opeii-moiitbed, and wilder, than ever. The 
Protestants canght the patriotic flame, and had 
formed a Repeal Association, of which Samuel Fer- 
guson, that noble poet, was the leading member and 
orator. A new hope struck the hearts of the leading 
Old Irelanders (John O'Connell excepted), and the 
Confederation adjourned sine die, to form a '' League " 
with them. There seemed to be unanimity and a 
purpose on all sides. 

In the mean time the terrible condition of tlie 
countr}^, which liad forced the nationalists to a bolder 
policy, also made the government active. Every 
available and commanding position was occupied 
and fortified. In the Bank of reland, soldiers as 
well as cashiers were ready '' i j/.-Ule up accounts." 
The young artists and stu lei.fs r the Eoyal Hiber- 
nian Academy and Royal L'lib? ;i Society had to 
quit their easels to make way for l^e garrison. The 
squares of old Trinity College resounded with the 
tramp of daily reviews; the Custom House at last le 
ceived some occupation by being turned into a camp. 
The Linen Hall, the Rotunda, Holmes' Hotel, Aid- 
borough House, Dycer's Stables in Stephen's Green ; 
every institution, literary, artistic and commercial, 
was confiscated to powder and pipe-clay. The bar- 
racks were provisioned as for a siege ; cavalry horses 
were shod with plates of steel, to prevent their being 

TV. Draper. J. De C. Young and myself had issued the "Patriot" in Api-il, which 
the police discontinued, by ren^oving the placards and confisca 'ing the stock in the 
hands of the venders. We then projected the "Tribune," and were joined by th^ 
parties named above, 



O^CONNELL Aiq-D MITCHEL. S25 

injured and thrown into disorder by broken bottles, 
iron spikes, or the like ; and the infantry were occn 
pied in familiarizing themselves with the art of fusil- 
ad ing footpaths and thoioughfares.* Arms were 
taken from the people ; and the houses of loyal fami- 
lies stocked with the implements of war. 

While these dreadful notes of preparation were 
flinging consternation over the peaceable inliabitants, 
and harmonizing tlie nationalists of the metropolis, 
O'Brien was in Louth, Meagher in Waterford, 
Doheny in Tipperary, and other leaders in different 
localities, wdiere the people received them with 
acclamation. Two days subsequent to the arrests in 
Dublin, the populace in Wateiford and Casliel flung 
up barricades to prevent the arrest of Meagher and 
"Doiicny, who, fearing to precipitate a revolt witliont 
naving a settled )lv dissuaded tlie people from 
their noble intenti ^. It needed the most impas- 
sioned exertions of j •' agher to calm the multitude. 
"For God's sake, sir, ^ ,e us the word ; for heaven's 
sake give us the word !" arose wildly from tliose 
men, whose devotion to the prisoner broke the stub- 
born patriotism within them. They cut the traces of 
the horses, so that the carriage could not proceed, 
hoping that reflection might invoke the barricades. 
But Meagher was immovable. "You will regret it," 
they cried — " you will regret it ; and it is your own 
fault." They almost turned upon him then. His 
progress out of the city was several times intercepted 

♦ Vide Notes to " Meagher's Speeches.** 



323 ViNETY-EIGHT AND FuRTY-EtuHt- 

by harricades. They even managed to divide the 
dragoons tliat formed his escort ; but to no purpose. 
After some hours of the greatest danger, surrounded 
at once by turbulence, anger and devotion, Meagher 
was allowed to leave the city. At the time, the city 
was in his hands. He ordered himself out of it. 

In Cashel the display of the po2:>ulace was not less 
devoted, and scarcely less exciting. When Doheny's 
arrest was known, the people crowded the way to the 
Jail, andres(^ued him. He alone, and with difficulty 
could preserve order, and recapture himself Implor- 
ing the populace to let him go with the authorities as 
his offence was bailable, he was taken to jail, being 
too truly his own guard. 

1 have elsewhere stated my belief that those 
were perhaps the niost hopeful opportunities during 
the year. There is no doubt but that a decided suc- 
cess would have attended the people, had they been 
left to themselves. With such a beginning as the 
capture of an important city like Waterford, and a 
triumphant rising in a locality so situated as Cashel, 
I believe the southern men would have been in a 
stalwart attitude, if not in undeniable possession of 
Munster in a week. 

Those glorious moments were lost through the 
want of a settled plan among the leaders. It is no 
wonder that the god of battles and of barricades for- 
sook us. Whatever were the scruples of honor which 
guided Ifeagher and Doheny, I cannot but believe 
that they would have been completely justified in 
the success an opposite course would have met. And 



O^CONNELL AND MITCHEL. 32^ 



wliile it is jut fair to acquit those gentlemen, from 
their point of view, of any lack of earnestness in the 
cause, or desire for its success, it is but just to defend 
the people against the charges which have been made 
against them since, of want of sympathy and devo- 
tion. Sach circumstances engender apathy, careless- 
ness and distrust. 

In a couple of weeks j^ublic speech was effectually 
crushed out in Dublin. The journal offices were 
tenantless— the club rooms echoless. The leaders 
had to fiy irom the towns. O'Brien, Meagher, Dil- 
on, O'Gorman, and Doheny, for whom large rewards 
were offered,'=^ were in the South. Every noticea- 
ble clubbist was either in jail, or on his way to thf- 
mountains of Tipperary. Reilly, McManus, Cant 
well, Kavanagh, Stevens, O'Donohoe, Leyne and 
Halpin, made their way to the leaders. " Brenan, 
Lalor and others, were arrested while seeking some 
sphere of action in which to precipitate a rising. J 
was almost the last man in the city. For some davs, 
rumors of my arrest were current, and on the 27th 
July, Waltei- T. Meyler, a well-known literary-mer 
chant in the city, came to my room, having found out 
that he and I would certainly be arrested. From a 
surer source my ftilher had heard the same. We con- 
sulted. I determined to join O'Brien in the South, 
and left Dublin the next morning. Meyler did not, 
and was arrested that day. 

Of the incidents which led to, and attended the 
movements at Ballingarry, MuUinahone, Killenaule, 

♦ J6500 for O'Brien ; £300 for each of the oth«w. 



32B 'nJNETY-ELGHT and 'rOKTY-EiOHT. 

and the Slate Quarries, by O'Brien, Dillon, McMa 
nns, Kavanagh, and their comrades ; and at Abbey- 
f'eale and its locality, by Richard O'Gorman and 
Daniel Hartnett, it is outside the scope of the present 
work to speak in detail. 

l^either can I enter into any narrative of the 
adventures and wanderings of John O'Mahony and 
myself prior to, nor the incidents of, the second 
rising in September, when all those who were better 
known, were eitlier in the hands of the enemy, or 
escaping from them. After some weeks of prepara- 
tion, we finally " lit the fires '' on the midnight of the 
1 2th September. On the assaults at the barracks of 
Glenbower, Scogh, and the localities around Slievena- 
mon by the Tipperary men under O'Mahony ; or, on 
the movements at Portlaw, Rathgormuck, and other 
insignificant places along the northern slope of the 
Commeragh Mountains, in which I was made some- 
what conspicuous, it would be, even if I had space, 
bootless to dwell. I may, however, be permitted to 
say, as well in justice to my friend on the one 
'liand, as without any foolish egotism on the other, 
that onr success was not commensurate with our 
endeavors. 

In connection with these movements there is one 
fact which cannot be omitted, and that is the antago- 
nism of the priests having jurisdiction ov^er the 
localities into which the "rebels" were thrown. 
The names of the Rev. Messrs. Conolly and Byrne oi 
Carrick-on-Suir, -Corcoran and Cahill of Mullinahone, 
P. Lafliin of Keilavalla, and Morissy of Ballyneale. 
will afford to the student who may be sufficientlv 



JOHN MARTIN. S^O 

interested in tlie aifiiirs of '48 as to look into ita 
details, a sad contrast to tliose of the Kearns, Roches 
and Murplijs of fifty years previous. 

After many dislieartening adventures, much weary 
wandering, much hope and serious misfortune, the 
brave and gifted Ixmd who were flung into ill 
designed rebellion some months sooner than the 
period their calculations had led them to look upon 
as most opportune, were hunted, scattered, captured 
and banished. 

O'Brien w^as arrested at Thurles, on the 0th Au- 
gust ; Meagher and O'Donohoe near Rathgannon, 
on the loth ; and McManus in the bay (if Cove, on 
board the ship N. D. Chase, on the 7th September. 
The others escaped after many vicissitudes, and in 
many disguises, out of the country. 

The trials proceeded. 

John Martin, the pure and estimable, who, com- 
bining with his persistent republicanism, a chivalrous 
friendship, rare in these days, settled up his worldly 
accounts, and staked the proceeds and his person in 
the columns of a journal, that Mitcliel might not lie 
when he had promised for him in the dock. He was 
brought to trial on the 16th August, and sentenced 
to ten years' transportation on the 19th. His remarks 
at the bar were highly characteristic of the man. 
'' There have (said he) been certain formalities car- 
ried on here for three days, but I have not been put 
upon my country, according to the Constitution said 
to exist in Ireland." He avowed his purposes, and 
added — '* being a man who loves retirement, I never 
would have engaged in politics did I not think it 



330 

necessary to do all in my power To make an end of 
the horrible scenes the country presents." Upon the 
jury's recommending him to mercy, he indignantly, 
but with his peculiar calmness, exclaimed : — " I can- 
not condescend to accept mercy where I believe I 
have been morally right. I wawt justice, not mercy." 

After undergoing two lengthy trials, on which the 
juries disagreed, Kevin J. O'Doherty was brought a 
third time to the bar, on the 30th of October. 
Young, promising, and gifted with those superior 
talents that o'ive iron streno-th to a conclusion in the 
mind of an enthusiast, O'Doherty was in every 
respect equal to the time. His conviction became a 
passion with tlie vice-regal despot, wlio avowed that 
he did pack the jury, and that " under the circum- 
stances," he did right. Although but twenty-four 
years old, he was already distinguished in his pro- 
fession, having taken the prize for certain essays on 
medical science. O'Dohert}^ flung himself with great 
enthnsiasm into the movement ; and proved him- 
self as worthy of its honors and sacrifices as the 
best. He was transported for ten years. 

At the conclusion of the trial, he confessed with 
pride that he desired to resist the government ; and 
also disclaimed the authorship of one of the articles 
included in the indictment in the •' Tribune," Avhich 
suggested the flinging of burning hoops on the 
soldiery, and concluded by believing his jury to be 
" twelve conscientious enemies," and by deploring 
the destiny that gave him birth in Ireland, and com- 
pelled him to receive a felon's doom for dischargiUj^ 
what he conceived to be his duty. 



i^'VARD D ALTON WILLIAMS. 



331 



Williams was tried on the same cliaro-e and f'^'* tlie 

o 

same articles as O'Doherty, and acquitted. At the 
the time of his arrest, this 

"— — fickle, audacious, inconstant, imprndent, 
Bloodshedding, verse-writing, medical student," 

was twenty-nine years old, and had been one of 
the earliest as well as one of the most distinguished 
of the poets whc made the '' Nation " famous. He 
was born in Tipperary — Tipperary of the broads 
hills and golden valleys ; Tipperary where the 
rivers flow like Irish melodies, dividing their chorus 
with the more rngged and j^ictnresqne hills of 
Waterford, that seem to grow tame with listening, 
as the " rnde sea " erst did to the " dnlcet and har- 
monious breath " of Oberon's mermaid. PI ere the 
soul of Williams was enlarged and charmed into the 
flashing wit of its mountain rills, the quiet humor of its 
whispering streams, the immovable patriotism of its 
liills, the broad, gushing passion of its potent rivers. 
Educated in Carlow College, monastic life seemed to 
have but given his studious temperament a greater 
fondness for retirement. He was pious as he was 
patriotic, and I well remember that his two great 
weapons in '48, were his praj^er-book and his rifle. 
lie went as regularly to religious service as to the 
rifle-gallery, and considered the preaching at the 
former incomplete without the practice at the latter. 
The crack of the rifle was the necessary " Amen " to 
liis morning prayer. His genius is peculiarly and 



332 

fflorioiislv versatile. His writin£!:3 under tlie well 

O ■> CD 

known signature of " Shamrock," are in every mood, 
and witl) equal success. In his patriotic odes a deep 
tone of elevated piety holds in, witli beautiful effect, 
the struggles of an exuberant and well-stored fancy. 
His love poems are full of tenderness and feeling, 
and his "Misadventures of a Medical Student," — in 
which he cracks jokes out of every joint of the 
human body ; and rattles the " lank phalanges " of 
the skeleton to as merry a tune as some Andalusian 
castanet-player in a bolero — are really unmatched 
and unmatchable for wit and drollery. In his hands 
chemical science is a comical one ; the Pharmaco- 
peia becomes a " marvellous horn " of fun and frolic, 
and is thus put to its proper use, a hearty laugh 
being the best of physic. In his company the " Dub- 
lin Dissector " cuts up such pranks before high 
heaven as make the angels weep with laughter; and 

" Statistics, the moon, or geology, 
Matbeiiiatics, liydraiilics, the tides, ichthyology," 

are figured, stoned, squared, pumped and fished up 
for the quaint and jocular revels of his muse. His 
acquittal was chiefly due to his being the author of a 
poem entitled the " Sisters of Charity," on the 
beauty, tenderness and pious feeling of which, his 
advocate Samuel Ferguson, dwelt with such force 
as to affect the jury. It is not a little remark- 
able that when the " Nation " was charged with 
infidelity, the Kev. C. P. Meehan, denying the im- 
putation, referred to the fact that this same poem 



,SMITEI O i>KlEN. 



333 



vas republished iVom its columns by tbe nuns aiid 
circulated by them. At present, Williams is a pro- 
fessor in a College in Mobile. 

Smith O'Brien was brouglit to trial on the SStP 
September. His calm, heroic dignity has well bee 
compared to that which histoiy records of '98. 
O'Brien was born on the 17th October, 1803. and is 
the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien, of Cahirmoyle, 
County Clare. Sir Edward was one of those who in 
1800 opposed the Union. He was a good-natured, 
impassioned man, and of a strong Irish character, 
which was heightened by the fact of his being the 
lineal descendant of the famous King Brian Born. 
Smith O'Brien's entry into public life was made 
memorable by his joining the Catholic Association, 
and making in Parliament, which he entered early, 
a remarkably vigorous defence of that body, in 
moving an inquir}' into the state of Ireland. He was 
ever the consistent and fearless advocate of his coun- 
try, though he was not always an O'Connellite. He 

oined the Repeal movement at a time when the 
government was using every exertion to put it 
jown ; and while O'Connell was incarcerated, 
he took the lead in Irisli affairs and conducted 
the business of Conciliation Plall. He looked upon 
it as the proper sphere of action, when hopes from 
an English Parliament became more than chimerical. 
In 1816 declining to enter on the routine of parlia- 
mentary duty, and beii.g l^acked by the O'Connells' 
pledging to do likewise, he would not serve on a 
railway committee, and was imprisoned for twenty- 



3U 



five cLys in consequence. In tliis affair, his con- 
duct >\ao ^ade tiie subject of animadvei-sion and 
ridicule ; out, though betrayed by the O'Connells, 
he pursued nis course of lionest integrity, and re- 
ceived tlie universal acclamation of his countrymen. 
Conciliation Hall passed a vote of confidence in liis 
^' integrity, patriotism and personal courage." His 
constituents of Limerick held a public meetir.g in 
approval , the corporation of Limerick voted confi- 
dence in, and an address to him ; and from Water- 
ford, Gal way, Athlone, I^Tewry, Ennis, Kilkenny, 
Cashel, Cork, Tuam, Ballingarry, Kilrush, and other 
places, the united expression of the people poured in 
to cheer and ratify the purity of his motives. A 
deputation of the celebrated '82 Club, consisting 
of Messrs. O'Gorman, Mitchel, Bryan, Doheny, 
Meagher and McManus, presented him an address in 
prison ; a deputation of the Liverpool Repealers did 
likewise, and the voice of the liberal press of L-elard 
had but one word of congratulation. 

Educated, eloquent, fearless and disinterested, 
O'Brien did not receive more lionor from the cause, 
pure as it was-, than he conferred upon it. Of a 
noble family, his sympathies were ever with the 
people ; and tlie advocate of their rights, he never 
disgraced them by demagoguis.ia. He neither kissed 
the blarney-stone, nor touched tlie purse, which is so 
prominent an institution, and so prolific a fountain in 
Irish politics.. In the Parliament — he towered above 
the Irish hacks there, as an Irish round tower, full of 
historic memories, ascends to heaven amid the i?.> 



335 



dern hovels by which it is surrounded. As a Sena 
tor he was dignified, and as a rebel only too chival- 
rous. While true to the democracy, he was an aris- 
tocrat, and while an aristocrat, impeached tlie 
intolerance of his order. His speeches, if not always 
"=?loc[uent, are generally able ; and his purity alwa^^s 
iiiade an impression where his rhetoric might fail. 
What Louis Blanc says of Odillon Barrot, may be 
applied to O'Brien. '' His eloquence left a lasting 
impression, because it was sound, lofty and strong. 
* * Despite the ^htly scornful turn of his lip, 
and the apparent st:> "jss of his demeanor, there was 
in him a simplicity of feeling, an ignorance of guile, 
a nobleness of heart and character, that gave him a 
great power to attract, if xiot to charm and captivate. 
People forget to bear him envy."* 

On his return from Paris, after presenting an 
address from the Irish Confederation to the French 
Republic, he made a most powerful and gallant 
speech in the Commons. The Government charged 
tte deputation with seeking French aid. The speech 
f O'Brien, while it denied the charge, createt. the 
greatest excitement and consternation in the House 
'* Irish Freedom must be won by Irish courage and 
Irish firmness," he said. " I have no desire to 
impose upon my country one description of servitude 
for another — for I believe that if the liberty of Ire- 
lard, and its redemption from its present position 
^ere won by foreign bayonets, its permanent position 

• History of Ten Years. Vol I, p. 48T. 



J^Sb 'JSiNETY-EIGHT AN^D 'fORTY-EIG tTT. 

could be retained only by foreign bayonets." He 
went on to thank the French for having given an 
impulse to the cause of freedom, which he trusted 
would re-act beneficially on his own country. 

" Every statesman in the civilized globe," he cried, 
" looks upon L'eland, as you look upon Poland, and 
upon yom- connection as entirely analogous to that 
of Russia with Poland." He dwelt on the sympathy 
of the Chartists, a petition signed by ^yq millions of 
whom was that evening presented to the house. He 
went through the grievances of Ireland with a bold- 
ness only equalled by the condensed and graphic 
energy of every sentence ; suggested what might be 
the situation of England with " an independent 
republic on the one side, and an independent repub- 
lic on the other," and concluded by impeaching the 
ministers of the crown as traitors to the country, 
queen and Constitution. 

At every word he was impeded, at almost every 
-^entence hooted, mocked, yelled and laughed at. 
One single voice was heard in approval, and that 
was Feargus O'Connor's. But he was there to speak 
his mind, and he did speak it. 

In look, stature, bearing and character, he was a 
man. Facing the Court on the morning of the 9th of 
October, 1848, he was asked " if he had anything to 
say why sentence of death and execution should not be 
passed upon him." He replied, " My lords, it is not 
my intention to enter into any vindication of my ooii 
duct, however much I might have desired to avail luj 
self of this opportunity of so doing. T ara perfef-tl? 



TERENCE BELLEW MCMANITS. 337 

satisfied with the consciousness that I have performed 
my duty to my country — that I have done only that 
which, in my opinion, it was the duty of every Irish- 
man to have done, and I am now prepared to abide 
the consequences of having performed my duty to 
my native land. Proceed with your sentence." 

McManus was brought to trial on the 9th, O'Don- 
ohae on the 13th, and Meagher on the 16th October. 
On the 23d they were brought up for sentence. 
O'Donohue spoke but a few words ; McManus' speech 
was thoroughly characteristic of his soldier heart and 
manly nature ; he paid a fine tribute to the genius 
and legal ability of his counsel, felt his heart free and 
his conscience light, and concluded thus : — 

" I have spent some of the fiappiest and most pros- 
perous days of my life iu England ; and in no part of 
my career have I been actuated by enmity to Eng- 
lishmen, however much I may have felt the injustice 
of English rule in this island. My lords, I have 
nothing more to say. It is not for having loved Eng 
land less, but for having loved Ireland more, that I 
now stand before you." 

Meagher, at the time of his arrest, had just com- 
pleted his twenty-fifth year, having been born in Wa- 
terford city, on the 3d of August, 1823. 

At an early age he was sent to Clongowes Wood 
college, and afterwards to Stonyhurst, in Lancashire, 
England, where his frank and happy nature endeared 
him to his associates. Here he was distinguished for 
the heartiness with which he joined in all the freaks 
of student life, and the sudden impulses of study that 

15 



338 



enabled liim to cany off tlie lioiiors from those who 
had paled their brows in months of laborious scrutiny. 
His mind was quick as gay, and retentive as playful. 
In English com230sition and rhetoric he was above 
all competitors, and already became remarkable for 
that elegant enthusiasm whicli afterwards, in so short 
a space of time, placed his name in the list of the 
recognized orators who have contributed so largely 
to make the history and literature of his country. 
Leaving Stonyhnrsf in lSdt3, fresh from the converse 
with the poets, soldiers, and heroes of Greek and Eo- 
man antiquity, with a rich brain and a richer heart, 
he flung himself into the national cause, around which 
so much fervor circled at the time. He attended 
the great meetings held at Lismore, Kilkenny, and 
other places ; became interested in the politics of his 
native city, occasional!}^ made a few remarks, but 
was not prominently before the public until after the 
death of Davis. From that occasion to the present 
his name is a portion of Irish history, and synony- 
mous with truth, courage, and eloquence. 

The true orator has more living influence than the 
author, because he combines the actor and the author, 
and his gesticulation — which is as necessary to a fin- 
ished orator, and produces an equal effect on his audi- 
ence, as the matter of his discourse — aids his words, 
and stamps his thoughts upon the mind of his hearers 
Dead, he has the same chance of reputation and influ- 
ence as the author, if his discourses are what they 
should be, besides having the prestige of the influence 
they commanded when first he uttered them. 



THOMAS FRANCM ^ffiAGHER. 339 

Cicero, Demosthenes, Burke, Patrick Ileurj, Slier- 
idan, and Curran, are read in the closet as classics. 
They influence thonght as mnch as any of their merely 
writing cotemporaries. And Shakspere is made 
ever present to lis, because lie is so constantly acted. 
His written eloquence is given to us as acted tliought 
nighth^, which keeps up his influence on parties who 
never read, while those who do read receive a double 
gratiflcation from seeing him acted. The true orator 
has the greatest certainty of extensive reputation and 
lasting influence. Meagher's career is an evidence 
of the one, and no doubt will exert the other. 

As Grattan was the orator of the Yolunteers, 
Meagher was the orator of the Confederates. He 
was more completely than any other man the living 
symbol and mouthpiece of that brilliant organization. 

Like that of Yergniaud, to whom he has been 
frequently compared, Meagher's "public life lasted 
only two years." Yet, in that short period, he made 
the world his audience ; and it is no wonder, for as 
Brenan beautifully says, " His bright musical thoughts 
circled round his fallen country as spring birds round 
a ruin." 

In those two years he became the acknowledged 
orator of a country proverbially wealthy in gifted 
speakers. In those two years he imbued national 
politics (if I can use such a combination), with a 
beauty, fervor, and force, to which his generation 
heretofore M^as unaccustomed. In those two years he 
became the most popular of the patriots. He flung 
demagoguism from the popular rostrum, and set up 



S40 



honesty and cliivalry in its place. He made the tri- 
bune an altar of invocation and defiance, from being 
the confessional of servile petitioners, and the show- 
box of wordj acrobats. He was immediately felt. 
His first burst of enthusiasm startled and created ad- 
miration ; and his constant appearance, sustaining 
himself more brilliantly the more daring his flight, 
whirled the people into an excess of enthnsiasm which 
is not yet abated. His speeches, previous to and 
about the period of the Secession, were criticised hy 
the English joiirnals as the speeches of no man of 
onr dav have been. Alludino^ to this remarkable and 
unusual fact, Mr. Henry Grattan expressed himself as 
not astonished, for " they displayed the talent of 
Junius, the spirit of Burke, and the courage of Flood 
and Burgh." 

His speech in the dock at Clonmel is a peculiarly 
elegant and interesting eff'ort. Thougli lacking the 
characteristics of his great bursts of passion, it has a 
purity and manly dignity so suitable to the occasion 
that I give it entire : — 



"My lords," he said, "it is my intention to say a few words 
only. I desire that tlie last act of a proceeding whicli has occu- 
pied so much of the public time should be of short duration. 
iN'or have I the indelicate wish to close the dreary ceremony of 
a State prosecution with a vain display of words. Did I fear 
that, hereafter, when I shall be no more, the country I have 
tried to serve would think ill of me, I might, indeed, avail my- 
self of this solemn moment to vindicate my sentiments and my 
conduct. But I have no such fear. The country will judge of 
those sentiments and that conduct in a light far different from 



Thomas feancis Meagher. S4i 

that in which the jury by which I have been convicted have 
viewed them ; and by the country, the sentence which you, my 
lords, are about to pronounce, will be remembered only as the 
severe and solemn attestation of my rectitude and truth. What- 
ever be the language in which that sentence be spoken, I know 
that ray fate will meet with sympathy and that my memory will 
be honored. Tn speaking thus, accuse me not, my lords, of an 
indecorous presumption. To the efforts I have made in a just 
and noble cause I ascribe no vain importance, nor do I claim for 
those efforts any high reward. But it so happens, and it will 
ever happen so, that they who have tried to serve their country, 
no matter how weak the effort may have been, are sure to receive 
the thanks and the blessings of its people. 

" With my country, then, I leave my memory — my sentiments 
-my acts— proudly feeling that they require no vindication 
from me this day. A jury of my countrymen, it is true, have 
found me guilty of the crime of which I stood indicted. For 
this I entertain not the slightest feeling of resentment towards 
them. Influenced as they must have been by the charge of the 
Lord Chief Justice, they could have found no other verdict. 
What of that charge ? Any strong observations on it, I feel sin- 
cerel}^, would ill befit the solemnity of this scene ; but I would 
earnestly beseech of you, my lord, you, who preside on that 
bench, wiien the passions and the prejudices of this hour have 
passed away, to appeal to your conscience, and ask of it, was 
your charge as it ought to have been, impartial and indifferent 
between the subject and the Ci'own. 

" My lords, you may deem this language unbecoming in me, 
and perhaps it may seal my fate. But I am here to speak the 
truth, whatever it may cost. I am here to regret nothing I have 
ever done — to retract nothing I have ever said. I am here to 
crave, with no lying lip, the life I consecrate to the liberty of my 
country. Far from it; even here — here, where the thief, the 
libertine, the murderer, have left their foot-prints in the dust; 
here, on this spot, where the shadows of death surround me, and 
from which I see my early grave in an un anointed soil opened to 



343 'ninety-eight and 'forty-f/gs1*. 

receive me — even here, encircled by these terrors, the hope 
which has beckoned me to the perilous sea upon which I haTe 
been wrecked, still consoles, animates, enraptures me. No, I do 
not despair of my poor old country, her peace, her Hberty, her 
glory. For that country I can do no more than bid her hope. 
To lift this island up — to make her a benefactor to humanity, 
instead of being the meanest beggar in the world — to restore to 
her her native powers and her ancient constitution — ^this has 
been my ambition, and this ambition has been my crime. Judged 
by the law of England, I know this .crime entails the penalty of 
death ; but the history of Ireland explains this crime, and justi- 
fies it. Judged by that history, I am no criminal — ^you (address* 
ing Mr. M'Manus) are no criminal — you (addressing Mr. Dono- 
hue) are no criminal — I deserve no punishment — we deserve no 
punishment. Judged by that history, the treason of which I 
stand convicted loses all its guilt, is sanctified as a duty, will be 
ennobled as a sacrifice. 

" With these sentiments, my lord, I await the sentence of the 
Court. Having done what I felt to be my duty — having spoken 
what I felt to be the truth, as I have done on every other occa- 
sion of my short career, I now bid farewell to the country of my 
birth, my passion, and my death— the country Avhose misfortunes 
have invoked my sympathies — whose factions I have sought to 
still — whose intellect I have prompted to a lofty aim — whose 
freedom has been my fatal dream. I ofter to that country, as a 
proof of the love I bear her, and the sincerity with which I 
thought, and spoke, and struggled for her freedom — ^the life of a 
young heart, and with that life, all the hopes, the honors, the 
endearments of a happy and an honorable home. Pronounce 
then, my lords, the sentence which the law directs, I am 
prepared to hear it. I trust I shall be prepared to meet its 
execution. I hope to be able, with a pure heart and perfect 
composure, to appear before a higher tribunal — a tribunal where 
a Judge of infinite goodness, as well as of justice, will preside, 
and where, my lords, many — many of the judgments of this 
world will be reversed." 



.fAMES FENTON LALOR. S4S 

The prisoners were then sentenced to be "hanged, 
drawn and quartered," which was afterwards com- 
nmted to transportation for life."^ 

In addition to these men, some mention of other 
leading sj)irits becomes necessary, and I regret that 
space will not allow me to dwell as minutely on their 
genius, good faith and sacrifices as my inclinations 
desire. 

One of the most remarkable men of the movement, 
taking either his personal appearance or mental 
acquirements into view, was James Fenton Lalor. 
Of a deformed person, ungainly action, compara- 
tively blind and deaf, soured in temper, splenetic, 
bitter and self-opinionated, he was one of the most 
powerful political writers that ever took pen in hand. 
His arguments were as logical as his conclusions 
were fierce ; his denunciations as bitter as they were 
eloquent, and his style as pure as his indignation was 
savage. The more ferocious his intentions, the bet- 
ter was his English ; and never being in an amiable 
mood, his manner, consequently, was never faulty. 
He was as fearless to act as to i3lan. He knew no 
such thing as temporization ; a half-measure would 
drive him wholly mad. Truth was the only expe- 
dient he believed in. He did not publicly enter 

* Of the prisoners sent to Van Dieman's Land, M'Manus, O'Donohue, Meagher, 
anJ Mitchel efifected then- escai)e to America. M'Manus landed in 1851; he resides 
in California. O'Donohue landed in 1852, and died early in 1854. Meagher arrived 
in 1852 ; he resides in New York ; and Mitchel arrived at the close of 1853. The 
latter started the " Citizen," in New York, on January 1st 1854, conducted it for 
one year, and then retired to a farm in Tennessee, wliere he now resides. In the 
conduct of the "Citizen," the writer was associated with Mitchel as literary 
ed'.tor. 



34:4. ViKETY-EIGHT AND ^FORTY-EIGfif . 

political life until after Mitcliel's baiiisliment ; but 
liis letters to the latter show that he was ever a revo- 
lutionist, and like Kenjon disbelieved in the O'Con- 
nellite policy. A true patriot, a passionate hater of 
tji^anny under any form or sky, he died a relentless 
republican, his health having been shattered^by the 
treatment he received in prison. 

John B. Dillon was born in the County Galway in 
the 3^ear 181-i. Originally intended for the priest- 
hood, he received a considerable portion of his edu- 
cation at Maynooth College ; but changing his mind, 
he finished it at Trinity College, Dublin, and in due 
time became a lawyer. At the University, Dillon 
and Davis met, and from their meeting, no doubt, 
much of the healthy tone subsequently introduced 
into Msh politics emanated. They, sounded the 
depths of each other's soul ; and together ambitioned, 
projected and planned a national future. In figure, 
gesture, and everything personal, these students were 
unlike ; but their national faith, hope and charity 
linked them together. Of the two, Dillon was the 
tallest and the handsomest, with luminously thought- 
ful eyes, an expression of serious sadness about the 
mouth in repose, of appreciative sweetness when 
moved with humor — and a sombre, Spanish visage, 
veiling a heart of Milesian heat and enthusiasm. 
Davis's manner betrayed the enthusiast — ^his bent 
shoulder, his more readably ex]3ressive face, his 
quickness of action, plainly exhibited the man of pur- 
pose, the student of many projects. 

Wliile in College, Dillon wrote some articles for 



.tOHN B. DILI ON. MS 

the " Morning Kegister," reviewing the rnle that 
prevented Catholics from attaining the degree of 
Scholar in the University ; they attracted notice, 
which induced Mr. Michael Staunton to offer 
the writer the editorship of his paper. On ih.Q 
starting of the Repeal Movement, Dillon's enthu- 
siasm in its advocacy was too strong for the " Regis- 
ter." He requested the proprietor to make it a 
Repeal organ, and failing in the request, left the 
office. Soon, however, the entire population of Dub- 
lin were repealers ; and as the " Register," had to 
live, it tui-ned with the tide, and Dillon again entered 
the office. Knowing the talent of Davis, and the 
vast pov^er latent in him, Dillon persuaded Mr. 
Staunton to associate his friend with him, which he 
did, and thus the students were fairly afloat with a 
glorious purpose and two stern pens. 

About this time it was that the notice of the Irish 
Government was attracted to the " Register," and an 
attempt made to purchase the source of its spirit. 
The under-secretary for Ireland, I^orman MacDonald, 
sent for the writer of certain articles. John Dillon 
went to the Castle. He was met in the most polite 
and elegant manner by the veiy " vain and empty " 
Secretary. Many arguments were used to prove 
how beneficial it would be for him to become 
a Whig, but were as firmly rejected as temptingly 
displayed. This was the turning point in Dillon's 
life. He might have joined the Government then, 
and easily Avorked his handsome head into a big wig, 
and his tall body to the bench since; 

15* 



ue 



A notion soon entered the heads of Dillon and 
Davis that thej would purchase the " Weekly Regis- 
ter," and change it into a high-toned, literary, politi- 
cal and educational journal. They had made up 
their minds to it, when one day in the hall of the 
Four Courts, they met Mr. C. G. Duffy, with whom 
Dillon had some acquaintance. They learned from 
him that he came from Belfast to start just such a 
journal as occupied their thoughts. They heard him 
with some surprise, but offered him, as he was a pro- 
fessional journalist, their services and support. The 
plans of all were united ; and of this union the 
" I^ation " was the noble child. 

In the very first number of the " Nation," Dillon 
came boldly out in an article of remarkable force on 
that curse of Ireland, the landed aristocracy. He 
gave the key-note of democracy, which has been 
swelled since into such choral volume. Take such 
sentences as the following, for instance : 

" The existence of a landed aristocracy is incompatible with 
public economy. Primogeniture is the basis on which it rests. 
The eldest son gets the estate, the rest must live. * * * 

" A landed aristocracy makes idlers, and gives them the bread 
of industry — still worse, it makes idleness reputable, and indus- 
try contemptible." * * * 

" The idlers' fund — the taxes and rents of these countries — 
are close upon one hundred and fifty millions a year. It is the 
business of every man who helps to produce the fund, to inquire 
whether it is well laid out. It is time to ascertain in what 
relation we of the plebeian order stand towards those people — 
whether we pay them a tribute as their slaves, or a salary for 
their servicas." * '* * 



RTCHAKD o'gOEMAN-. 84? 

Good maxims, taese ! There is a pliilosophic firm- 
ness about Dillon's speaking and writing wliicli make 
botli attractive. 

After the discomfiture in the South, Dillon made 
his way to his native Galwaj, eluded the authorities 
in the Achil isles, and with a brave comrade, Pat- 
rick J. Smyth, escaped to America disguised as a 
priest, from the actuality of which he formerly 
retired, and formed those associations wdiich led to 
his exile. As a lawyer in New York, he is highly 
esteemed, and has associated w^ith him, professionally, 
the partner of his principles and exile, E-ichard 
O'Gorman, who, after sharing the perils and misfor- 
tunes of the party in the South, made his escape in a 
vessel that turned him up, or set him down, in Con- 
stantinople. Knowing the powxr of England over 
the Ottoman Empire, O'Gorman secured passports 
by communicating with General Cavaignac, and 
ultimately arrived in America in 1849. 

Tlie name of Michael Doheny is intimately con- 
nected wdth every movement suggested by the ills of 
his country, or projected for its amelioration, for 
twenty years. His life is an evidence at once of the 
untamable nature of indigenous ability, and of the 
cares wdiicli unconquerable devotion to an idea 
engenders and overcomes. His first twenty years 
were as remarkable in their unlettered throbbings, 
as the remainder were active in the rostrum, at the 
hustings, in the journal office. In those latter years, 
he was but putting into energetic and eloquent eer- 
vice, the visions ii\d impulses that visited him at the 



848 ninp:ty-eight and forty-etght. 

plough. Actually, lie was an inspired ploLgh-boy. 
Dolieny was born on tlie 22cl May, 1805, at Bi-ooldiill, 
near Fetliard, County Tipperary. His cliildliood was 
precocious, and from the age of five to eight years, 
he was noted for remarkable mathematical know- 
ledge, which submerged almost evfery other branch- 
of the education he at this period received from a 
" poor scholar " domiciled in his father's house. 
From a position of comparative independence, Dohe- 
ny's father fell under misfortunes, and the child was 
put to guide the j^lough. The passion for knowledge 
was upon him, and having a brother at the time 
being educated for the priesthood, some translations 
of the classics fell into his hands. Mounted on the 
horse, he pored into the magic realm of Greek and 
Roman story, became a creature of another world, 
until the animal, left to itself, jerked the plough from 
its intended furrow, raised the audible indignation ot 
the holder, and brought our child-dreamer from the 
classic heaven to his Tipperary earth. "Blair's 
Compendium " fell in his way, and scarcely ever left 
the person of the boy. It learnt the horse to be idle, 
it initiated rust on the spade ; and dispossessed for 
the time the old hills and the historic links that sur- 
rounded him. ISTo thing could seduce him from the 
" Compendium," but one thing — and that was, a fox- 
hunt. The sound of the horn, the yelp of the hounds, 
were to him, as the " warlocks and witches " to Tam 
O'Shanter, they bewitched him ; and mounting Ids 
" grey mare, Meg," away the boy went, helter skel- 
ter, over ditch and dyke and fence and gap, as thougJj 



MICHAEL DOHENY. 349 

all tlie " rigwoodie liags," were cliasing him to the 
Brig a' Doon. Thus the boy grew np to be twenty- 
one years old, when in company with Pat. Daverne,* 
he went into Limerick in search of education. Meet- 
ing a noted scliolar named Maher, of Emly, on the 
road, the three adjourned to a " neighboring . ale- 
house " (as the novelists say) and the two young men 
stipulated with the schoolmaster, that for thirty Brit- 
ish shillings, the latter should, in the course of the 
ensuing eight or ten months, transfer all he knew in 
the way of classics to them. Thus at twenty-one 
years old, Doheny went to school — to read, write, 
and get the Latin ; and the fifteen shillings then 
paid, was all that his education ever cost him. He 
boasts of this. Lie is proud of it, and looking at the 
position he attained, the speeches, he made, and the 
various writings both in prose and verse from his 
accomplished pen, there are none who can deny the 
assiduity and energy that must have produced such 
results. Li due time, having wonderful facility and 
popular power as an orator, he become a lawyer, 
writing for the London press to defray the expense 
of putting in his terms in that city ; settled in Cashel, 
became a prominent local politician, and afterwards 
well-known on the national platform. In '48 he 
escaped (in the garb of a pig-drover) from the South 
of Ireland to Bristol, reached London, went to Paris, 
and finally to America, where he resides, and follows 

♦ Afterwards a most distinguished priest, and noted as the author of a series of 
powerful letters to Lord Hawarden, 



350 'ninety-eight and 'foett-eight. 

the profession of law. In his course, Doheny has 
been as true and firm as the famous rock opposite to 
his house at Cashel. He was, and is, as Mitchel calls 
him in his " Jail Journal," " a devoted rebel." His 
great facility for public speaking often puts bini for- 
ward to bear the brunt of public criticism ; but he is 
fearless, and quite as ready to attack as to defend. 
He rarely thinks of consequences if he has made up 
his mind that he is right. His honesty renders him 
impolitic, and the brusqueness of his manner at times, 
demands the consideration of even his most ardent 
friends. He is withal an Irishman of true capacity 
and action. As an orator, he has stood beside 
O'Connell with advantage ; and in the " Young L*e-- 
land" movement, was scarcely less effective than 
Meagher. 

Jose23li Brenan, whom Mangan said had " all of 
Shelley's soul," has seen at present about twenty- 
eight summers, and was born in the ISTorth of Ire- 
land. Corkmen generally claim him among the list 
of their notabilities, which, while but just to his 
intellect, is not true in fact. At an early age he was 
removed to Cork, and grew up there, which has led 
to the error. He was originally intended for the 
Church, but disappointed " fond anticipations," like 
many of his friends, and took to writing very clevei 
articles, when not more than eighteen or nineteen, in 
one of the Cork papers. He met Mitchel in Cork 
early in '48, beheld his ideal L'ish revolutionist, and 
soon afterwards sold his rifle to pay his expenses to 
Dublin, where, about the last days of the " United 



JOSEPH BEEN AN". 351 

L'ishman " lie arrived, to see tlie man banislied, to 
join whom he had left his home. Brenan became 
immediately known to his Dublin associates and tht 
government, as a brilliant, forcible yonng fellow, 
equal and ready to face any emergency. Some of 
his writings in the " Felon " were prosecuted. He 
was imprisoned in Dublin and Belfast for about nine 
months, and wrote there some beautiful poems. 
After his release he edited the " Irishman " with 
great force, versatility and elegance, and in October 
of 1849, had to fly to America, being implicated in 
an attack on the police barracks of Cappoqnin, and 
the leader of an insurrectionary movement in that 
locality. At present he is chief writer on the l>lew 
Orleans " Delta." Brenan has written more really 
fine, sterling things than any man of his years ; and 
many men whose names make a " sensation " — peo- 
ple of many years' " literary standing " which does 
not always imply under-standing — will never write 
anything half so good. His temperament is highly 
poetic, which, coupled witli a delicate appreciation of 
nature, and a bold, copious phraseology, makes him 
at once a writer of great flexible vigor, and an orator 
of much picturesque expression. He sees things 
originally, and gives a quaint, happy, or philosophic 
guise to everything he touches, according to the 
mood of his muse. For some years he has labored 
under the calamity of comparative blindness, induced 
by unsuccessful treatment while in the horrors of the 
yellow fever in 1853. Under this and the decima- 
ticn of his household, his poetic nature deepened 



352 



into gloomy sensitiveness, from wliicli liis spirits have 
happily arisen like the bright crocus from the deso- 
lation of winter. 

Dr. Thomas Antisell, at the time he joined with 
tlie students on their appearance in the political arena, 
was already distinguished as a geologist and chemist, 
to the archives of which sciences he has contributed 
some valuable treatises. lie was a pupil of Sir Rob- 
ert Kane, and regarded as second only to that cele- 
brated chemist and successful scientific experiment- 
alist. In America lie has found a prolific field of 
investigation, and has fully sustained and enlarged 
the reputation for which he received credit. He has 
lately been engaged on a scientific mission by the 
United States government in California. 

On the banks of the Suir, at a place called Mul- 
lough, in the county Tipperary, thei-e lived in the 
beginning of '48, a gentleman farmer, of ample means 
and thorough education, of unassuming manners and 
devoted patriotism, in whose vrarm southern nature a 
deep knowledge of the ancient Celtic tongue and 
misfortunes brooded, and tinct with a silent but lofty 
veneration and enthusiasm, the ho2)es and aspirations 
which at the period manifested themselves in the 
Young Ireland party — who in a word, was a " rebel ;" 
a pure souled, high-hearted, courageous, and in his 
district — which encompassed the counties of Tippe- 
rary, Waterford, and Kilkenny — most powerful rebel. 
His name was John 0']\[ahony. 

When the leaders took " to the hills," he succored, 
aided, and cheered them, and when they were i;.r- 



353 



rested, wandering outlawed through the island, or 
seeking the shores of America and France, O'Mahony 
still brooded over the wrongs and sorrows of the 
fatherland. He could not leave his native hills. He 
looked down the golden valle}^ of the Suir, and said, 
as Cromwell said when gloating over the same scene, 
" This is a country worth lighting for." The inspira- 
tion of Davis throbbed through him, and he felt the 
ambition of the poet's soul : 

•' Be mine the lot to bear that flag 
And bead tbe men of Tipperaiy." 

Looking for O'Brien and Meagher, I met O'Mahon}^, 
and having the same faith, being inspired by the 
same hopes, fresh prospects, and visious of success, 
or, at least, '* one bold efibrt," beckoned us on. Hunted 
almost by night and day, but resting secure in the 
devotion of the peasantr}^, we visited the '^disaffected" 
districts, and organized the rising before alluded to. 
O'Mahony, by a series of really startling adventures, 
eluded the vigilance of the police. He was in Clon- 
mel during the trial of O'Brien, organizing a force to 
attack the court-house, when he was discovered, and 
saved himself by leaping from a back window. He 
ultimately escaped fj-om Dungarvan, in the county 
Waterford, in a fishing-smack, and w^as landed in 
Wales, where he remained for six weeks, until an 
opportunity offered for his conveyance to France. 
He resided in Paris for five years, and came to 
America towards the close of 1853. Of indomitable 



354 



NLN^ETY- EIGHT AND FUETY-EIGHT. 



will, great pln^sical power, and scholastic and scien- 
tific strength — of a pure and elevated nature, stored 
not only with a variety but a profundit}^ of knowledge, 
— with a rectitude unbending, and a faith unfathom- 
able, O'Mahony is one of the greatest enthusiasts that 
ever drank music from a motli-eaten manuscript in 
the Celtic tongue, and as resolute a guerilla as ever 
inspired or mastered a nmltitude of like resolute souls. 
The same faculties which make him a student also 
make him a revolutionist. His great, quiet power is 
to overcome ; and at books or barricades, is equally 
capable. 

Of John Kavanagh, who was seriously wounded at 
Ballingarry, James Stevens, Dr. Hetherington Drumm, 
formerly sub-editor of the " Nation," James Cant- 
well, the late M. Crean, and other refugees, it is im- 
possible for me to say more than that they all deserved 
well of their countrymen in serving their country. 

The following is a list, alphabetically arranged, of 
those who were arrested in '48. I do not give it as 
perfect, for the means of making it so are not within 
reach : 



Michael Joseph Barry. 

* Patrick Balier. 
James Bergen. 
Joseph Brenan. 

* John Brennan. 
John Brennan, Dublin. 
Francis Bridgeman. 
John Burke. 
Edward Butler. 

Robert Cane, M. D., and J. 
T. W. Condon. 

* Brian Connell. 

* Michael Dacres. 



Peter Davy. 
Michael Doheny. 

* James Donovan. 

* Fenton Doran. 
DowHng, 

Chartist Repealer. 
Charles Gavan Duffy. 
Andrew English. 
Thomas Fahey. 
P.Patrick Ferrall. 

* Michael Flanagan. 
Lawrence Geoghegan. 
Patrick Gogarty. 



John Gray. 

Thomas Matthew Halpln. 

* Patrick Hannegan 
James Hayes. 

* Joseph Hewson. 
Denis Hoban. 
Edward Hollywood. 
John Hughes. 

* William Hunt. 

* Michael Jay. 
Patrick Kelly. 

* James Kenna. 
Philip Kennedy. 



THE STATE PEISONEES. 



355 



John Killilea. 
James Fenton Lalor. 
James Francis Lalor. 
Denny Lane. 
John Lawless. 
John Lee. 

Maurice Ricnard Leyne. 
Denny P. Lyons. 
Patrick Marron. 
Jolin Martin. 
Eugene Martin. 
William Mathews. 
* Daniel McCarthy. 
William McCarron, M. D. 
Thomas D. McGee. 
Thomas McGrade. 
Michael McKenna. 
Terence Bellew McManus 
Charles McNamara, 
William McNaughton. 



Tlwmas Francis Meagher. 
Stephen Joseph Meany. 
Walter Thomas Meyler. 
John Mitcliel. 

Morissey. 

Dennis Mullin. 
William Smith O'Briaji, M. 
John O'Brien, Cork. 
John O'Brien, Dublin. 
Kevin Izod O'Doherty. 
Patrick O'Donohue. 
John O'Donnell. 
Patrick O'Higgins. 
Thomas O'Rourke. 
Anthony O'Ryan, M. D. 
Frank O'Ryan, 
Bernard O'Sullivan. 
Miss Eliza Power. 
* Michael Power. 
John Rea. 



Thomas Deviu Reilly. 
Col. Rochford. 
Miss Ryan. 
Francis B. Ryan. 

* Pierce Saunders. 
Timothy Sexton. 

P.* Sheehan. 

* Edward Slaney. 
Thomas F. Strange. 

* Jeremiah Sullivan. 

* John Sullivan. 
Charles Taafe. 
Edward Trouton. 
Edward C. Varian. 
John Varian. 

* John Walsh. 
Edward C. West, M. D. 
Richard D'Alton Williams. 
John De Courcey Young. 



* Those marked thus (*) were arrested for taking part with the present writer in 
the attack on Portlaw. The principal of the above was Mr. James Kenna, a mas- 
ter smith, "a man of good circumstances," who kept "two forges." The assizes 
report of July 12, goes on to say, " It may be remarked that, with the exception of 
Kenna, who pleaded guilty, who was a respectable-looking tradesman, of about 
sixty years of age, all the prisoners were young men, apparently above the rank 
of common laborers, clad in good broad-cloth, and all ranging between tlie ages of 
twenty-one and twenty-five." 



Of those not mentioned there were some fifteen 
arrested in Cashel, sixteen in the "Wilderness," near 
Clonmel, a nnmber at Ballingarry, three at Carrick 
on Suir ; whose names I exceedingly regret 1 have 
not been able to ascertain. 



THOMAS DEVIN REILLY 



an 



THOMAS DEVLN" REILLT. 



^5^ 



THOMAS DEYi:^ EEILLY. 

It is with great diffidence I approacli this portion 
of my " labor of love :" diffidence of my capacity to 
put on paper an idea of Thomas Devin Rellly equal 
to my knowledge of him, or worthy of the friendship 
which existed between us. This very friendship 
mars to a great extent the satisfaction which one who 
knew him less might feel in writing of him ; for so 
much rises before me — so many pleasant details of 
his life and genius crowd upon me as to render the 
curtailment a sad and perplexing duty. I shall, 
therefore, confine myself to an outline of his career, 
with such illustrative matter as the imperfect scope 
of these pages will permit. 

Thomas Devin Eeilly was born, as his mother's 
Bible informs me, in the town of Monaghan, County 
Monaghan, Ulster, at " lialf-past five a.m., Tuesday, 
30th March, 1824." His father, an attorney of large 
practice, was solicitor for Lunatics and Minors in the 
Court of Chancery at the time of his son's opposition 
to the government, and at present is Taxing Master 
of the same Court. Devin received the rudiments of 
his education at Monaghan. On his father's removal 
to Dublin, about liie year 1836, he was put under the 
tuition of the priests on Usher Quay, and afterwards 



m 



received his college entrance course at Iluddart's 
noted seminary. In college he was distinguished for 
classical and mathematical attaimnents ; took some 
honors, bnt did not graduate, having flung himself 
from the cloisters and classics of old Trinity, into the 
national cause, at a time when Irish politics were at 
that white lieat which, under the bold strokes and 
Thor-liammer energy of " Young L-eland " soon took 
tangible shape in the Confederation. 

Keilly was an indignant scion of an untamable 
race. He liad all the restlessness, activity of brain, 
impatience under opposition, and love of war so 
characteristic of the Clan CoUa tribe of tlie Here- 
monians that ruled in ancient Oirgiall, from which 
he was descended. 

At the time he entered politics, Reilly was a 
sturdy, rugged, impetuous youth, with a loving heart, 
a passionate self-reliance, and an audacity fed by 
convictions as stubborn as they were stern. He was 
in a state of revolution, and impressed every sheet of 
paper that came beneath his pen with himself. The 
mass of knowledge he had accumulated in his youth, 
the philosophies, the histories, the political economies, 
and governmental sophistries that were in him, were 
in revolt ; and his brain, under the necessities of the 
period, and the natural bias of his organization, dashed 
amid the multitude and selected the component 
parts of a consistent government for the man. Tlie 
heroism of anti(]^uity, the fierce democracy of the 
French Revolution, the chivalry of the Irish Brigade, 
the gallant faith of '98, with the cheering vehemence 



THOMAS DEVIN KEILLY. 



M 



of Davis and the "Nation," combined to illuminate 
and command from him a homage and devotion as 
fierce and strong as such a union of influences will 
readily suggest. 

The first mention of Reilly's name I find among 
those who attended the funeral of Davis ; about a 
month after which, he made his appearance in the 
literary columns of the " I^ation."* The article is 
noticeable only for a clear exposition of the nature of 
the work nnder review ; and exhibits none of the 
remarkable power, freshness of style, and pictorial 
pen-labor which at once made his reputation on the 
appearance of his brilliant papers on Louis Blanc's 
" History of Ten Years," shortly afterwards. He 
seemed to have thoroughly caught the spirit of the 
great Frenchman, devolution was the natural bias 
of Eeilly's mind, and he revelled in the drama of 
1830, which, to use his own words, made " Edmund 
Burke ' look daggers ' from his coffin — tumbled poor 
Niebuhr into his grave," aud made Europe stand 
aghast. While condemning the St. Simonism of 
Blanc, he could readily appreciate the love of the 
poor and miserable that was the secret of it ; and 
while differing with his doctrines of centralization, 
could not but " sympathize in the admiration of a 
great mind " which produced it. The thunders of 

* His first article was on Dr. Madiien's " Connection between the Kingdom of Ire- 
land and the Crown of England," Oct. 25, 1845. I have seen it several times stated, 
and by the "Nation" among others, since his death, that the noted review of 
Blanc's " Ten Years " was the first. The two parts of the latter appeared respec- 
tively on Dec. 27, 1845, and Jan. 17, 1846. My authority is his own handwriting, 
marking the articles he contributed to that journal. 

16 



S6^ 'ninkty-eight 

July still rolling through the pages of Blanc, sliook 
his young reviewer into as vivid an activity as if he 
had been one of the •polytechnique students, who 
led the workmen against the bari-acks in the Rue 
Tournon, or tramped through the galleries of the 
Tuilleries, and waked their gallant comrade in the 
throne of tlie Bourbons, surrounded with the broken 
statues of kings. 

Ah ! the dead student on the throne was greater 
than the living king. He commanded the people. 

Transferred to the Louvre, the student of Trinity 
could have knelt down and worshipped in wild Ulster 
accents, the officers who tore off their epaulettes and 
broke their SAVords sooner than point them at the 
throats of the people. He revelled in the blouses of 
the faubourgs, and chronicled with a characteristic 
vigor the " nobility of soul and principles of honor," 
that animated starvation and rags in a manner " un- 
known to the aristocratic herds and monarchic broods 
of earth." 

These papers gave Beilly an immediate position 
among the able men who were creating a new litera- 
ture for L-eland. He was fond in after years, of 
dAvelling on these volumes of Blanc, and of referring 
to his early appreciation of them. It appeared as 
though the study of them confirmed his opinions and 
helped to form his style ; to the aid of which, how- 
ever, he brought a more poetic organization, w^hich 
in turn, while it heightened its effect in general, to 
suit his particular audience, was more diffuse than 
that employed by the French historian. 



THOMAS BEYiN EEILLY. 868 

In February of 1846, Mr. Steele called the atten- 
tion of Conciliation Hall to some resolutions moved 
by Hon. Felix McConnell, of Alabama, " in the 
American House of Assembly," which held out 
inducements for the annexation of Ireland to the 
Republic. Mr. Steele, who *' in the absence of 
O'Oonnell," felt it his duty to speak for him, would 
rather see the island " overwhelmed and submerged 
for ever by a swelling and upheaving of the wild 
Atlantic Ocean," than " annexed to a slave-holding 
republic." He " disdained the attainment of a sel- 
fish Irish nationality " at the sacrifice of " the sub- 
lime principle of universal liberty." This brought 
Reilly out in the " l^ation " of the following Satur- 
day. He denied that nationality was selfish, and 
condemned the mock philanthropy that negatives 
home interests while going abroad for principles to 
fight about. " Such pliilanthropy as Mr. Steele 
professes," wrote Eeilly, " is a species of nationalist 
polygamy. Tour true Cosmopolite is a moral Grand 
Yizier, a Platonic Tui'k, a lover on too large a scale 
to love at alL He loves every country and none 
truly. Nationality is a pearl — the richest, too, in 
charity's casket. Philanthropy enlarged is the pearl 
dissolved."* 

The increasing reputation of Reilly was soon visi- 

* On the ^Monday following (Feb. 9th) Mr. Steele, in the " Hall," made an oppor- 
tunity to reply, by stating he had received an anonymous letter desiring him to 
apologize to Mr. McConnell. He stigmatised the writer— evidently meaning the 
"Nation"— as "an anonymous miscreant Molly Maguire notice-writer," and 
sooner than retract his " truly O'Connellite speech, would have his head chopped 
Off." 



uG4: NINETY-EIGHT AND FORTY-EIGHT. 

ble in the annoiincemeHt in April, of two works from 
Ills pen, for the "Library of Ireland." They never 
were wiitten, but the fact of his name being used to 
strengthen the prospectus may be taken as evidence 
of the position he acquired so rapidly, and the reliance 
placed on his ability.* At intervals, I find his bold 
\vords flashing out in and lighting up the editorial 
columns. He attacks the Poor Laws. On the Oregon 
question he was for America, not wishing " to see a 
Canada on the north-west of the American continent ; 
and for other reasons." He welcomes the Portuguese 
insurrection of May, and invokes his brethren to 
watch well the lessons of Freedom. The Portuguese 
of northern Minho were forced, by excessive taxa- 
tion, to take up arms. The minister, Costa Cabral, 
introduced a bill into the Cortes, avowedly founded 
on Peel's Lisli Coercion Act, and enforced its adop- 
tion, by referring to it as a measure which enlight- 
ened England was preparing for peaceable Ireland. 
"Then," said Eeilly, " did we blush to think that our 
degradation was the strongest weapon of foreign ty- 
rants." But tlie flame spread through the provinces 
of Traz-os-Montes and Beira. The women com- 
menced the assault on the troops ; the men rushed to 
the defence of 'their women. The "Agrarian out- 
rage " turned into a revolution ; Cabral barely saved 
his life by flight, and the queen, "profoundly afiiict- 
ed," revoked tlie odious laws, and guaranteed liberty 
of tlie press. 

* Tlie works, as announced, were " Biographies of the United Irishmen," ami 
M The Penal Days." 



THOMAS DEVIN liL:iLLY. 805 

I can see Reilly's soft blue eyes dancing at tlie 
news, and his mobile lips nttering mingled male- 
dictions and Imrralis. The circnmstances were pecu- 
liarly applicable to Ireland ; and by chronicling the 
facts, he felt he would be telling tlie Irish to imitate 
the brown sons of Portugal,- who rose up against 
^^ Peel's policy." 

Kow, Peilly is defending Smith O'Brien in his 
parliamentary cellar on " legal '' grounds, and looking 
at his position as one not involving "personal but 
national liberty ;" and now, he is disentangling the 
misstatements and filling up the omissions in Moore's 
^' Hietory of Ireland," which he looks upon as " the 
growth of an age which delights in teaching a little 
of everything, and nothing well." However he might 
glory in Moore as a poet, he had not the slightest 
resj^ect for him as a historian. "The rebel," 
says Moore, " has seldom a chronicler," to which 
Ileilly adds, "May he never have the hke of Jmn 
again." 

Tester eve he saw the sun setting in radiant splen- 
dor by the waters of the " thundering Oregon ;" this 
morning he saw it rise again on the quickening vine- 
yards of the Douro ; at noon he is in the pauper dis- 
tricts at home, where the Poor Law comes between 
the Irish race and the face of Heaven ; he takes refnge 
in the cellar of O'Brien, and in the quiet eve sits by 
the mangled carcass given by Moore as the body of 
Irish history, and re-writes the legend inflicted on its 
coffin. Every wdiere he carries with him an observant 
eye and an impressionable soul, a haughty step, and 



3G6 'a^kyety-icight and Vorty-eight. 

a tongue forked with bitterness, tlie lavish dispenser 
of historic memories. parallels, and hopes. 

On the 22nd June, after the stormy debate on the 
"Juvenile orators," Mitchel proposed Keilly as a 
member of the Repeal Association. 

On the 6th July, Lord Milltown, in a letter to his 
" dear O'Connell," proposed to the latter the post- 
ponement of the Repeal agitation, " for a season, to 
give time to form an Irish party to assist the miaistry 
— if willing, to urc^e them on — if lagging, in procur 
ing justice for Ireland." Reilly immediately, in the 
editorial columns, exposed the cifrontery of the " Mil- 
tonian theory," which would "experimentalize) on 
poor Ireland in the old fashion — fuse her man*ow 
in a whig crucible — and obtain the invaluable resi- 
duum of half-a-dozen placed barristers, or colonial 
Dogberries, lately professed in Irish popular prin- 
ciples, and a few hundred Catholic policemen, ready 
drilled to shoot their own fathers." Postpone the 
nationality of Ireland until she tried to acquire a 
contented provincialism? "If Mr. O'Connell acted 
on the suggestion, he would be the basest and black- 
est traitor that ever poisoned God's air, even in Ire- 
land." A fortnight afterwards he gibbeted the Hon. 
Cecil Lawless (son of Lord Cloncurry), who took up 
the " Miltonian theory," and defended the Dungar- 
van election. " Let no stripling whig dare to talk of 
* poor Ireland ' begging at England's door, for * meas- 
ures of atonement,' we are sick of such stuff." Both 
of these articles w^ere included in the indictments of 
the " Hall " against the " Nation." 



THOMAS DEVm REILLY. 367 

After that of his admission, the only occasion in 
which Eeilly's name is visible in the reports of Con- 
ciliation Hall, is upon the daj on which he left it for 
ever. It was immediately after Mitchel rose to reply 
to John O'ConnelL There was considerable excite- 
ment in the body of the Hall, in the midst of which, 
in the words of the report, "Mr. Devin Reilly rose 
and claimed the protection of the Lord Mayor, against 
a person who had grossly insulted him," and pointed 
out the man. After some confusion the Lord Mayor, 
from the chair, stated that no person was entitled to 
speak or express an opinion who was not a member. 

Mr, Reilly. — My lord, I am a member of this As- 
sociation, and I have a perfect right to approve or 
disapprove of any sentiment I please. (Oh, oh.) 
This man had the audacity to place his hand on my 
collar; he is a salaried officer of the Association. 
(Oh, and hisses.) 

Tlie Salaried Officer. — This gentleman, when Mr. 
Mitchel stood up, commenced cheering most unmean- 
ingly. (Oh, oh, and hisses.) 

The Head Pacificator came to the rescue in his 
official capacity ; "Keep yourself quiet, Maguire (said 
he), you are misbehaving yourself most grossly ;" the 
salaried officer disappeared like a weed in the ocean, 
and the debate was resumed which ended in the Se- 
cession. 

The ensuing issue of the "Nation" was bolder and 
more self-reliant than ever. Li the leading article, 
Mitchel fairly stated the position of " Young L'eland." 
"Ifj" said he, "it was merely in compliment to the 



868 

great leader of the Association, that those men have 
been laboring in it, then the first indication of tlieir 
having fallen under his displeasure will put them to 
flight in confusion and dismay." And Reillj, in a 
stirring appeal to the country, indicated '' The Hoad 
before us." He did not know such a word as despair. 
He wrote to the m^n of Ireland : — 

" If you are still slaves, it is not your fault. 

" Your leaders war with each other. Your supreme Council 
is torn asunder in internal dissension. Free and independent 
opinion, the right, the sacred ' right to differ,' is banned in the 
Hall, called of ' Conciliation.' Your giant Cenfederacy rocks in 
peril. Your winged hopes pause irresolute, or are borne back 
by the blast of disgust. The hell of damned provinciahsm seema 
closing over Ireland again. Do you, her sons, despair 2 * * 

" If the xissociation roll into eternity to-morrow, with all its 
Young Ireland and Old Ireland, are you to be dragged with it ?" 

He continued to expose the trickery of the Hall, 
and the whiggery for which O'Connell had sacrificed 
the heart and sinew of the country; and from "The 
Hill, Monaghan," under date August 25th, and over 
his own signature, sent a letter to the secretary of the , 
Association, reviewing sharply the whole question, 
and dissenting from Mr. O'Connell on the points at 
issue. In the movements which followed he took an 
active part, put himself in communication with the 
Remonstrance Committee, was the acting secretary 
to the Seceders, transacting the business with Mr. 
O'Connell and the provinces, during the period of 
the conferences between the " Young " and " Old " 
Ireland parties; was, with Mitchel, Dillon, O'Gorman, 



THOMAS DEVIN KEILLT. 369 

aii'i Duffy, selected by the Dublin Eemonstrants to 
draw up an address to the country, on the " real posi- 
tion of the difference," and on the formation of the 
Confederation, was made one of the Conncil. 

Such, so far, is a view of Reilly's political life. A 
little more than a year since he beheld himself anony- 
mously in type ; and he has, by his powerful pen, 
written his burly figure into a front rank. Not twen- 
ty-three years old, and he might have died with 
honor. 

It is wortliy of remark, that Meagher, Mitchel, and 
Reilly, certainly the greatest combination of eloquence, 
knowledge, and vigor in the party, entered the stage 
at nearl}^ the same period. Reilly, fi'om wholly con- 
fining himself to the pen, was not so distinguished or 
publicly known as his friends, but he labored with a 
passion worthy of either, and which was thoroughly 
recognized by both. The friendship formed between 
Mitchel and Reilly was something beyond the scope 
of most men's comprehension. They could admire, 
but not understand it. It was a novelty in these lat- 
ter days of personal suspicion and universal benevo- 
lence. They were flung much together, were both Ul- 
stermen, equally fearless, and equally interested each 
other by the honesty of their views and the resources 
each brought to illustrate them. In Mitchel, Reilly 
beheld, and took every occasion to say so up to the 
day of his death, the truest as well as the most con- 
sistently great man he ever met. 

During 184:7, Reilly entered with full enthusiasm 
into the movement, wi-iting both literary .and political 

10^ 



370 'ninety-eight and 'fokty-eight. 

papers, attending tlie Irish Council and tlie Confede- 
ration. At tlie latter he rarely came forward, save 
to second some motion, or hand in subscriptions. 
Thono^h liavincr the brain, he liad neither confidence 
in his own powers, nor ease of manner so necessary 
to make an orator. He did not manifest any desire 
for the tribune. He was a student, and like all men 
of knowledge and enthusiasm, could, at a sudden 
crisis, surpass himself and astonish his friends. He 
made two speeches, however, from which I shall 
allow him to outline his own ideas. They hold brave 
principles in brave language : — 

"A peop]e, sir, which tamely lies down in its own land to 
starve, deserves to starve. If it be given to men to interpret the 
motives of the living God — and I, for one, do not believe this 
famine is Ilis work ; yet, whatever of it be His — was done by 
Him, I am convinced, to make the national existence of our 
country identical with our personal lives — to make us act like 
men, that we may live like animals — to make us brave in self- 
defence."* 

April 22nd he brought forward Mitchel's report on 
Mr. Godley's noted scheme for " raising in the back 
woods of Canada an Irish nationality, with its Irish 
Catholic Church, by means of a joint stock company 
of London merchants." After a very able review of 
this ])ropo5ition, in which he tore the mask off the 
" imperial cold-blooded juggle," he concluded by a 
scathing recital of the state into which the Irish had 
allowed themselves to fall. It was at once a bitter 

♦ Speech at Confederation, April 7th, 1847. 



TUOMAS DEVIN KEILLY. 371 

picture of tlie present — a maddening memorial of 
their dishonor as men, and a withering retrospect of 
the cowardice and shame entailed on them by their 
adherence to O'Connellite ao^itation, and their foro-et- 
fulness of the great men who had gone before him. 

After enumerating the degradations to which thej 
were subject, he continued : — ■ 

"You are all slaves. * * * False flatterers — sycophants 
of your vices — have told you, you are a brave and a noble 
people — that you are the bravest and the noblest people 
of Europe, and so forth.' ISToav, I, one of you --one of the 
class, in false language, called " the people " — one, too, of 
tliat native race which the English government propose to 
brush oif the Irish soil — tell you, you are no such thing. You 
are — nobles, citizens, merchants, farmers, beggars, and all — 
what your present masters and owners call you — an inferior 
caste, because they are your masters and owners. You are at 
this present moment tlie most humiliated, tlie most pitiable, the 
most helpless, the most despised people, with a white skin, on 
the face of God's whole earth. You are not Irish men^ but Irish 
slaves — a mean and broken species. For forty-seven years to 
what tyranny have you not submitted — to what depths of obse- 
quious servitude have you not sunk ! What insult has been too 
keen for you to bear — what degradation too gross — what op[)rcs- 
sion too grinding — what wrong too sore — what cruelty too cruel 
for yonr natures, slaves? * * * 

"Now, then, choose at last — choose whether you will wait on 
quietly till the most agonising of deaths, the most horrid of 
diseases, and the most cruel of infamous prcvjects sluill have 
swept you all from tlie Irish soil ; or whether you will at once 
spring to your feet from your apatliy and your degradation, and 
w.n y«nir spurs of nationhood like men. (T.oud cheers.) * * * 
Tell them that here, you, at all events, come what may, shall di^^ 



872 'ninety EIGHT AND 'fOKTY-EIGHT. 

(Loud cheers.) So, even should Irish Nationahty i)erish for 
ever. * * * Even so, the workl will recognize in tlie nobil- 
ity of our deatli a grand example of patriotism and manhood ; 
and Heaven itself, moved to tenrs and wrath, looking down 
upon the land where we fell, will avenge the ftite of a nation of 
heroes." 

These bi'ave, bold and bitter sentences show the 
passion that was devouring and inspiring liis heart, and 
tlie holy purposes that enveloped him like a flame. 
He could not find words strong enongh to convey 
the diso^race lie felt, nor arms strono; enongh to 
remove it. He desired to free liis country '' from 
the empire's yoke should the empire fall in ruins 
around." 

With such faith it is not strange that he formed so 
deep a friendship with Mitchel. With the latter, and 
for the same reasons, he retired from tlie '-I^ation" 
and Confederat'on ; and in the " United Irishman," 
and afterwards in the " Felon," jioni-ed forth the 
irresistible throbbino;s and vearninu^s of his soul, in a 
manner which made them not less read, and scarcely 
less effective than Mitchel's writings. In his papers 
on the European revolutions, there was a lyrical 
beauty of diction, a picturesqueness of arrangement, 
and a passionate democracy that lield the breath like 
the beholding of the actual catastrophes. In his let- 
ters to Lord Clarendon, there was a cold-blooded 
brilliancy, that while it held one in amaze at the 
audacity, startled him with the truths so vividly 
horrible, and dazzled him with the hopes so defiantly 



THOMAS DEVIN EEILLY. 373 

radiant. And lie changed off so suddenly from wild 
defiance to calm argument, from satirical to statisti- 
cal figures, balancing both with equal strength, that 
the reader was whirled away into lauding sedition 
-.for the sake of the style ; and into excited approval 
of treason, iinder the felonious felicity of the facts 
before him. 

Reilly was arrested for marching men throngli the 
streets, but was not prosecuted at the time. Becom- 
ing a most dangerous, because the ablest leader who 
visited the clubs, he was outlawed by the gorern- 
ment, and betook himself to the Tipperary mountains 
for safety, from which he wended his way to the 
North of Ireland, and ultimately, after many exciting 
adventures, escaped in a small cockle-shell of a ves- 
sel, which, however, bore him safely to I^ew York, 
wdiere he landed about the end of ^N'ovember, 18i8. 
He was in a very soriy plight. Kags and melan- 
choly smothered his big heart ; his burly frame had 
wasted to a gaunt incapacity, and his face was hag- 
gard w^ith combined sorrows of the mind, w^ants of 
the body, and the misery of an unusually long voyage, 
pent u]3 in a small and ill-stored craft. Thus he 
stood in the great city. He made a few inquiries, 
and in due time wended his way to the dwelling 
of Robert (since Judge) Emmet. 

How that name must have quivered through him ? 
what a torrent of heroism and disgrace — what con- 
trasts of historic devotion and abandoned agitation 
must have passed through his brain, at once quick- 
enino; bim into fervor and subduino; him into shame. 



374 'ninety-eight and 'forty-eight. 

Freely would lie have died — oli, liovv freelj, like the 
noble uncle of the man before whose door he was 
standing in ragged outlawry — but his time had not 
come. He is reserved for something ? Ah, the time 
may come — it must come The dogs of the street 
may become historic by Lapping up Jiis blood ! The 
very thought enlivens him — he knocks. 

The attendant was rather struck aghast at the 
impudence of the "gentlempn who wished to speak 
with Mr. Emmet." The lat\er came into the hall, 
and the man in tattered freize, patched corduroy 
breeches, and brogans, with pale face and closely- 
cropped hair, introduced himself as " Devin Heilly." 
The name was sufficient. Judge Emmet greeted 
him, as became the name he bore, and led his comi- 
cal and sorrowful visitor into tlie parlor, when who 
should his exiled eyes fall upon, but John Dillon. 
In utter ignorance of each other's fate, neither know- 
ing that the other escaped, much less was in America, 
the meeting may be imagined. Reilly, surrounded 
by the ladies of the family, felt an awkwardness in 
his disguise which was at once highly ludicrous and 
touching. He begged Mrs. Emmet not to form any 
impression of him at present, gracefully referred to 
the Judge for a '^ character," and made the dinner 
table memorable to every one present. During the 
evening, he poured out his pent-up feelings, recounted 
his adventures with a mingled passion and humor, 
which is vividly remembered by his listeners. " With 
commingled crying and laughing," said Judge Em- 
met to the present waiter, '-Keilly went over tlie 



■riiOMAS DEVIN EKILLY. S'j'S 

details of tlie past few months, aiurkept iis deeply 
interested, or shaking with huighter, the whole 
night." 

Soon he was at work, for the vulture was gnawing 
at his hosom. In January, 1819, he issued the "Peo- 
ple," with William E. Kobinson,"^ and after a bril- 
liant cai-eer of six months, the proprietors being of 
opposite American politics, it was discontinued. In 
it Eeillj sustained his reputation, and created an era 
in Irish-American journalism. 

For many months after the cessation of this jour- 
nal, Eeilly lived in Brooklyn, an uncertain, depress- 
ing and wandering life ; being chiefly sustained by 
occasional remittances from home. His chief delight 
and solace was in the study of the Kevolutionary 
history of America, and in fitful flights into the 
works of Jomini and other military strategists. He 
had once almost concluded to enter mercantile life ; 
and at another time had made some preparation to 
go to the West, and employ his mathematical know- 
ledge in such a manner as w^ould enable him ulti- 
mately to become a surveyor or engineer. His anti- 
English proclivities used to find vent in recounting, 
in our long w^alks and talks at the time, the horrois 
of the prison ships of AYallabout, in tracing the 
remains of Fort Greene, and following up the tracks 
of the Hevolutionary W^ar in the neighborhood of 
Brooklyn — in talking over his friendship with Mitcliel 

* To this talented gentleman nearly everj Irish refugee, especially th^e who 
Ian led iRimediiitely after tlie failure, is indebted for many serviceable attennoni 
tJ,e Dieraory of which sb.»al4 aat be foigottan. 



376 

—and in the evenings at Dolieny's residence, going 
over the whole movement, criticising t'lie men who 
suffered, and bitterly condemning those whom he 
believed had aided the failure. His passionate heart 
should unburden itself. On other evenings at my 
father's, the music of tlie Irish melodies would harmo- 
nize the chaos within him. Some quaint or tender old 
Irish song would stimulate his humor or pathos ; and 
there was one, Davis' " Lament for the Milesians," 
of which he was excessively fond, and the beautiful 
music of wdiich ever forced the tears to steal quietly 
down his cheeks. Poor fellow, he was more thor- 
oughly a man in being so truly a child. Kis guile- 
less simplicity as well as his uncompromising frank- 
ness, endeared him to those who thus met and under- 
stood him. 

Early in 1850, he was induced to go to Boston to 
write the chief articles in the " Protective Union," 
a paper started by the printers on the joint stock 
principle, to advocate the rights of labor. 

His letters of the period did not exhibit any great 
change in his monetary prospects. One of his earli- 
est says to me, " After some time I think I will be 
able to make room for you here. At present the re- 
turn is nil, and no vacancy on that same." In May, 
still coupling my prospects with his own, he writes, 
'^I have only a share in the 'Protective Union/ and 
it pays little or nothing ;" and from time to time he 
expresses much dissatisfaction at his position in Bos- 
ton 

However inauspicious in this regaid, his visit to 



taoMAS i)EVIN EEILLY. 37^ 

the " Athens of the E'orth," was productive of a great 
and healthy influence on the remainder of his life. 
He there met, and, after a short courtship, married, 
Miss Jennie Miller,* formerly of Enniskillen, who, 
under the many trying circumstances and anxieties 
of her husband's brilliant, but too brief career, proved 
herself thoroughly worthy of the title of "Roman 
matron," with which he dignified, her, in a letter to 
me, some few months before his death. 

After some solicitations on the part of Mr. D. W. 
Holly, then publisher of the " American Eeview," 
who had a great appreciation of Reilly's genius, the 
latter came to 'Naw York, and in the close of 1851 
and. beginning of 1852, produced a series of splendid 
papers in that periodical, exposing the foreign policy 
and internal ignorance of England. His style lent a 
charm to statistics, that made them more important 
by taking away their dryness. He disrobed political 
economy and social philoso23hy of their musty and 
unintelligible technicalities, and made them so popu- 
lar, that Mr. Greeley, in a leading article in the "Tri- 
bune," directed attention to them, and said if they 
were printed in pamphlet form and scattered in Eu- 
rope, they would create a revolution. f He also de- 
voted much study to the Central American question, 

* They were married on the 30th of March, 1850, at Providence, R. I. 

t His principal articles in the " American Wliig Review " are entitled " British Policy, 
Here and There," Nov., 1850, "Russian Ambition" (a political and literary review 
of Talvi's "Sclavonic Literature"), and "British Policy, Ilcfe and There — Who 
feed England?" Dec, 1850, "'London Assurance,' or Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, 
versus Yankee Newspapers," Jan., 1851. "World's Fair," '' The First Olympiad 
of Cant," and "'More of it,' another ciinpter of 'London Assurance,'" Fob. 
" America and Europe, ' Peace and Foi-Lircu Relations,' "March. " The Democratic 
Reviewer Reviewed," (on Free Trade), April. 



37 



and wrote on the subject. After some time, Mr. 
Priestley, tlie proprietor of the " Re view," thouglit these 
w^ritings of too radical a nature, which opinion led to 
the cessation of Reillj's pen for some months. Hav- 
ing met Mr. George N. Sanders, that gentleman, with 
Reillj and Holly, entered upon sonje consultations, 
the issue of which was the purchase of the "Demo- 
cratic Eeview," and which, under the new manage- 
ment, produced an excitement memorable in the po- 
litical histor}^ of the day. Its republicanism was of 
the most ultra and unswerving caste ; and while indi- 
cating and sharing in the exciting political struggles 
in America, hoisted the Democratic banner over 
every nationality in Europe ; and took up the cause 
of Hungary, Italy, France, Germany, and Ireland. 
While belaboring the " Old Fogies " in America, it 
never forgot to dinge the crowns of Europe. Politi- 
cians were in a nervous fever in the breathing time 
from month to month, between congratulating them- 
selves on not having been noticed in the last number, 
and fear of being scarified in the next. The news- 
papers were eager to get an early copy to extend the 
obituary of some decapitated "Fogy," or contradict 
the rumor that the "Democratic Review" had killed 
him. 

Being always in a rage itself, the " Review " soon 
created a like feeling in the public — it became the rage. 
Comic papers caricatured its writers, and revivified 
its victims into ludicrous notoriety ; comic versifiers 
squibbed on its suggestions ; leading journals all over 
the country poured out praise and denunciation with 
equal heartiness ; and the wise heads of Congress 



^J'llOMAS DEVIN REILLY. 379 

even took to criticising and debating on its merits 
and men. In the midst of tliis clamor, '' Youiiix 
ximerica " was horn; a rotund " Ked " Kentnckian; 
a tall, and firm as tall, Buckeye ; a thin Connecticut 
Yankee ; and a brace of Young Ireland refugees, 
standing sponsors. Baptized in an ink-bottle, wrap- 
ped in the sheets of the " Review," and rocked in the 
cradle of Democracy, it was as healthy as the Consti- 
tution of tlie United States conld make it, and avowed 
its j^rinciples to be word for word the Declaration of 
Independence. The name then made popular has 
since been used to identify a sectionality beneath it, 
and to cover principles it could not ])reach. 

Through the chief part of 1853, Reiliy was compar- 
atively inactive. About September he w^ent to 
Washington, and soon was appointed to a position in 
the Land Office, by the President. lie wrote, a short 
time before leaving [Rew York, the famous paper on 
Naturalization, and the Koslza case, whicli was gene- 
rally regarded at the time, as a governmental, if not a 
State document, and was variously attributed to Gen- 
eral Cushing, Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, and 
other leading men. From that time I did not see 
him until he was in his coffin. The letters written 
during his residence in Washington, a couple of 
which I give, exhibit his good, thoughtful nature, 
and show some of those finer — because private— feel- 
i]igs, by the aid of which one may estimate him. The 
following familiar epistle w^as in reference to the 
death of Dr. F. B. Eyan, a mutual friend, and whose 
professional and other attentions to his family and 
mine fuUv iustified the tone in which he wrote. 



880 

Washington, D. C, Sept. 13, 1863. 

My Deae Jack ; 

The news of Ryan's death which you sent nie, has 
shocked me gi-eatly. He was, indeed, a kind-hearted, noble fel- 
low, and I am deeply sorry for him. We both have lost a true 
friend, and to Brenan the loss is that of a brother If Joe thinks 
well of a monument or stone for him, let me know at once. I 
wish, however, Ave could do something for his unhappy wife. 
But I am unable to suggest anything here. If you hear of any 
thing being done by his friends, let me know at once. My poor 
wife, too, has been miserably ill since I left — Good God ! what 
a desolation her loss would make. 

" I have not yet seen the President, but am waiting for the mo- 
ment. I predicate nothing on good fortune, and do not shun 
the worst. I am mucli obliged to you for your note. Love to 
Meagher. Ever yours, 

Dev. 

The following letter to the dangliters of Captain 
Samuel C. Reid, whom he highly prized for having 
beaten his " ancient enemy," the Briton, at Fayal, in 
1814, and in whose family he stood on terms of the 
warmest friendship and intimacy, contains some very 
pleasing allusions to himself and home, and some 
happy indications of his nature. 

Our house is the corner of Cormeciicut Ate. and R. St 

Washikgtox, D, C. \st Dec, 1853. 
SiSTEES : — On this day five years ago, I had the honor of buy 
ing something between a hat and a cap, in some place near 
Chatham "street. It is a long story — ^but as I landed the night 
previous, without either hat, or cap, or coat, or anything but a 
gold piece, which the Jew somewhere about the corner of 
Cherry, changed for "four eighty-four," to oblige the other Jew 
from whom I bought the cap ; it is one of the most remarkable 



THOMAS DEVIN EEILLY. 381 

3vents unrecorded in modern history. Suffice it to say that on 
this day, five years ago, I became a child of our great mother ; 
and as I pay liomage to her, and tlie stars and stripes, I seek a 
fairer and more ennobhng emblem of the beauty and of the 
glory of Republicanism — I seek something to which even as 

good a married man as Gen. J mu.-t bow his head, to bend 

mine to you and to your mother. If I meet but lilies on the 
way-side, I must stop my horse to get down to worship them. 
Can you feel offended if, on this weary long path through exis- 
tence, I pay the same homage to you. 

Beauty is to me a thing immense — the line of a lovely 
woman's face or arm, conveys to me, always did convey to me, 
all the " philosophy " '* sages " coax themselves so much about. 
It conveys to me, this look on a woman's face, the ideal of 
excellence. I see in it virtue, courage, right, fondness, love 
beyond all increasing, happiness to all about it, fidelity, incor- 
ruptibility, health,'horae, and that quiet, careful, dear care which 
takes us to its arms when we are young, and lays us, calling on 
the sextons not to let the stones grate upon our coffin-lid, when 
we die. 

Tliey have gone out to market. I am alone. I believe for 
the first, for a very long, time. I have, too, the happiness of not 
being compelled to write for a day or two. I thought the very 
lest thing I could do, was to write to you. It will ennoble me 
to raise, myself up beside the standards of grace and beauty so 
excellent. The poor vine so rich in bearing merry juice— the 
honey-suckle that used to creep into my windows, when as 
children Ave played about its leaves, all these had yet something 
to train them by, some great ideal of their own to whose alti- 
tude they wished to aspire. So it is with me. I remember 
taking pity once on a little rose-tree which was so small and 
weak, that'you could hardly think it would live, if it was asked for 
the fun of it. I took it— I got my head broke for my impudence 
in interfering with mother's choicest, x>etite, Chinese rose— but, 
oh! it did the work. It grew up. It is now a beauty in my 
own island of (lowers, and blushes with its deep damask among 
the vines and the honey-suckle which creep and festoon around 



383 



the windows where I used to meet a mother's smile, and where, 
for the first of my race, I was born. Well, it surely does a man 
good once in a while to look back to where he came from, and 
to measure Ms latitude in intellect, in virtue, and in the great 
ideals which onalte intellect and virtue. I thought that the 
best thing that I could do this day, was simply to write to you 
both. The town looks fine — nobody ever saw such preparations 
in "Washington to get up a regular " winter.'*'' For myself, being 
alone and desolate out here, '" on the corner of Connecticut Ave. 

and K. St.," in a (oh, I beg pardon, I was going to curse) 

very cold house, I have pretty much everything outside on 
the high-road with an otf-slantendicular by-road or two to get 
over, to my satisfaction. I have hkewise a room with a stove, 
and the neatest little furniture. In fact, if an angel from heaven 
would say she was coming here, Jennie would see all right for 
her, and could you ask a better servant than myself? 

Of course I have been misrepresented. I know that in the 
course I have pursued and am pursuing, and that, till the thing 
is done, which is only to yull down that British Jiag once more., 
I am open to every attack. Well, I can take everything and 
hve to do my work. More I do not Avish, unless it be the smile 
and love of beauty ; and oh ! girls ! wlienever you throw your arms 
about man, think what an inestimable treasure you throw around 
him. Greek and Roman, and Modern English, and Hollandeth 
Dutch, and all the Italians, and yet the '' Crystal Palace " half- 
dozen committees have sat on art. Horace Greeley, for instance, 
has given A /s judgment about Powers' slave, and other people have 
sat in judgment upon much finer statues. Well, then, my criti- 
cal judgment loses now, all its mere fanciful exactness. It may 
be that Powers has hit off the turn of reluctant and excelling 
beauty. It may be that according to the destiny of this vile 
and merely modern civilization, beauty may be to me as a for- 
gotten picture, or as a lily which has faded. Yet, still, tliough 
buried down with all the misfortunes of existence, think of me, 
often, very often, 

As your friend and worshipping servant, 

T. Devdt Reilly. 



THOMAS DEVIN EEILLY. 883 

A P.S. to M. and L. — The occasion of tins is that they have 
just returned from market, and of course my wife wishes either 
to send yoii a whole rib -bone of this very valuable chicken, or 
else to ask you to come down and eat it, for herself; for you 
know that ladies always like to so do over, or overdo, all 
things. 

Dear Mary and Lou: — We have almost got a little cot- 
tage like Tone's — but yet, hardly yet, not so, we want some 
angels about our Godhead. Write somebody to one of us 
and say. K. 

Friday Morning. 

I wrote all the enclosed last night, blots and all. I thought' 
it should be torn when it is so blotted. But -yet I thought 
again that it was the very best compliment to send to you both. 
Mary will see a soul even through blots hke these, and Lou will 
rub away the blots and leave the soul all clear, as God first 
fashioned it. 

To your dear mother my kindness and most loving love. 

E. 

Soon lie was completely absorbed in politics, and 
could only steal occasional moments to inform Lis 
friends of his speculations, movements, and writings- 
In the highest quarters in Washington, his remarka- 
ble ability as a political writer soon made lasting 
impressions. He rode on the enthusiasm and trust 
he created, and present comfort was just closing his 
previous struggles from view, and disclosing a cer- 
tainty of future happiness and emolument, when he 
closed his eyes for ever. He died March 6tli, 1854. 

;N"o sooner were the sad tidings made public, than 
the appreciation in which the genius of the dead was 
held, was manifested by several eminent and leading 
men calling in person on her who had so cheered in 



384 



misfortune, and liel|)ecl to concentrate in success, the 
mind of the deceased. President Pierce was deeply 
moved at the intelligence conveyed to him by Mr. 
Chas. A. Peilly ; and his private Secretary, Sydney 
"Webster, Esq., and the Under-Secretary of State, 
Col. Dudley Mann, in person conveyed to Mrs. Peilly 
the condolence of the Executive, as well as their own 
sympathy. 

A public meeting, of which Beverly Tucker, Esq., 
was president, and Senators Shields, and John P. 
Thompson, and John C. Breckenridge, Hiram Wall- 
bridge, and other members of Congress, with many 
professional and distinguished men, vice-presidents, 
gave expression to the feeling of his fellow-citizens, 
and embodied them in a series of resolutions, which 
too truly assured the public : — 

" That in the death of Thomas Devin Peilly, a 
great public loss lias been sustained — a loss to his 
fatherland, to his adopted country, and to the cause 
of 23rogressive principles." 

I met Devin Peilly in a riot, in the streets of Dub- 
lin, on an occasion when, the old Ireland party attack- 
ing the Confederates, we were thrown side by side ; 
I left him in the grave, resting on the bosom of that 
'' great mother," who was set free by the principles 
he so proudlv vaunted, and so energetically preached= 



APPENDIX. 



No. L 

[The following Address of the Council was adopted at a general and 
special meeting of the Irish Confederation, held March 9, 1848, at Music 
Hall, Dublin, to congratulate the French nation on the then recent 
republican successes. Michael Crean, operative, presided.] 

Address of the Council of the Irish Confederation to the 
People of Ireland. 

Fellow-Countkymen : In a circular addressed to its representa- 
tives at foreign courts, the great French Eepublic has thus spoken 
through the most illustrious of its servants : — 

" Thus we declare it openly, if the hour of the reconstruction of na- 
tionalities long oppressed, in Europe or elsewhere, should appear to us 
to have sounded in the decrees of Providence, the French Republic 
would believe itself entitled to arm for the protection of those legitimate 
movements for the greatness and nationality of states." 

Three nationalities there are, " long oppressed in Europe" — Italy — 
Poland — Ireland. The hour for Italy's redemption has already sounded 
— the bleeding breast of Poland heaves with the breath of returning life. 
Shair Ireland alone remain buried in darkness, while her sisters are 
emerging into liberty and light ? 

When the hour shall have sounded — when the virtues of nationhood 
shall appear, and the vices of provincialism shall be conquered and 
trodden down — when falsehood, cowardice, and selfishness, shall be cast 
aside, and regarded with scorn — when courage, self-sacrifice, and mu- 
tual love, shall mark the conduct of the people — then shall we be in a 

J7 



886 APPENDIX. 

position to call upon the great protectress of oppressed nationalities to 
redeem her pledge. 

When shall this hour have sounded 1 Whether in a month, in a year, 
or never, depends, brother Irishmen, upon you. If, upon the threshold 
of this new career, we will blot out all recollections of past injury from 
our hearts — if, with hand clasped in hand, we will swear before Heaven 
tliat we will be true to each other — that no evil influence shall divide us 
— that no danger shall turn us back — then be of good hope, for the hour 
of deliverance is at hand, and a good and pitying God will not have 
sent us this fair opportunity in vain ! 

Courage, mutual confidence, and brotherly love — these are the virtues 
of the hour. 

Listen to the warning that is written in every page of the history of 
our servitude. Tiie craft of the tyrant is more formidnhle than his strength. 

Reptiles, whose breath is poison, will crawl around your steps, whis- 
pering suspicion, ridiculing all manly sentiment, decrying bold courses, 
undermining your confidence, and chilling the ardor of your hopes — 
you must tread these reptiles beneath your feet. 

Be prudent : when boldness risks the safety of a cause, it becomes 
rashness. Be prudent, but not for yourselves. The man who now 
shrinks from personal risk must stand aside ; he is fit neither to lead 
nor to follow. To what purpose do we express our admiration of the 
heroes who braved death for liberty, if we ourselves are frightened by 
the " meshes of the law" 1 Ereedom smiles not upon cowards ; she 
turns her radiant face away from those who will not woo her in the 
midst of danger.^ 

For ourselves, brother Irishmen, we have but one request — that we 
may be suffered to share the labor and the danger of your struggle, as 
we hope to participate in the fruits of your triumph. We are ready to 
forget our party, our injuries, arid our pride, for the sake of our coun- 
try. In her service, humiliation, and danger, and sacrifice, and death, 
are welcome to us. Wherever we ai-e required, we shall be present, in- 
different as to whether our post be humble or exalted. WhocA^er leads 
on, we shall follow, insisting only that we shall go forward — forward, 
though graves were to yawn, and gibbets to frown across his path. 

[Signed] J. B. Dillon, Chairman. 



APPENDIX. 387 



No. II. 



Address of the Committee of Trades and Citizens to the 
People of Dublin. 

Fellow-Citizens : Although the object of our appointment by you 
was strictly to make the necessary preparations for the forthcoming 
meeting, still we will take the liberty of suggesting to you what (we 
think) your conduct should 'oe, both before and after that meeting. 

It appears to us (to speak familiarly) that loe have the game in our oivn 
hands if we will play it with boldness and with prudence. Seeing the 
disposition now universally prevalent toward a union of the national 
party — seeing the disturbances which are breaking forth in rapid suc- 
cession in England and Scotland — seeing, moreover, the almost inevi- 
table necessity of an immediate European war — it is impossible to arrive 
at any other conclusion than this, that if we are not too headlong, or 
too timid, Ave shall shiver this oppressive yoke to pieces within this 
very year. 

6 brothers, think of this : the golden prize for which we have yearned, 
and sighed, and toiled, so long, is now within our reach, and will speed- 
ily be ours, if we do not forfeit it by our own rashness or cowardice ! 

There are but three conditions necessary to success ; neither of them 
impossible, or even difficult — 

AVe must unite. We must be prudent. We must be bold. 

We will not dwell on the expediency of Union in this emergency. 
The country calls loudly for it; and, in originating this united move- 
ment, the tradesmen of Dublin have sounded that call. Surely, no man 
will stand in the way of that union, so universally demanded, so vitally 
required. 

While expressing our admiration of the vaJor of the citizens of Paris, 
let us not overlook the other virtues which have surrounded their Eevo- 
kition with so much glory — their self-control, their love of order, their 
respect for property and for religion. Wiiile opposing a fearless front 
to the government, let us be careful not to afford them any colorable 
excuse for invading our constitutional rights. Let us, as we hope to 
leave a free and happy land to our children, avoid such disgraceful 
scenes of riot and plunder as have recently occurred at London, Edin« 
burgh, and Glasgow. Let us, by our peaceful and orderly demeanor, 
prove to our own people and to strangers the falsehood of the assertioa 
that we are unfit for self-government. 



o<58 APPENDIX. 

Brother Irishmen ! the enemies of our nationality have now but one 
hope, and that is, that you will break out into street riots, and v/ill thus 
afford them an opportunity to strike terror into the people of Ireland 
by a sanguinary example. They will possibly, by the agency of spies, 
and by petty provocations, endeavor to drive you into this fatal indis- 
cretion. We rely on your good sense and intelligence to defeat and 
baffle those old and too often successful machinations of the enemies 
of our country. 

It will be for us, in the execution of the task you have confided to us, 
to take care your cause shall no,t be compromised by any want of dis- 
cretion, nor your character sullied by any exhibition of cowardice. If 
you, the citizens of Dublin, Avill set an example to your fellow-country- 
men of that love of order and self-control without which no people ever 
yet have gained or preserved their freedom, we, on our part, will under- 
take to point out, before many days shall have elapsed, a course of ac- 
tion which, if followed up with that spirit which the time demands, will 
speedily put an end to English usurpation in this country. 

[Signed] John B. Dillon, Chairman. 

Westmoreland street, March, 18^8. 



No. III. 

Address of the Irish Confederation to the Citizens of the 
French Republic, adopted at a Meeting held in Music Hall^ 
Dublin, Wednesday, March 15, 1848, John B. Dillon pre- 



Illustrious Citizens : Permit us to offer to you such congratu- 
lations as a people still suffering under servitude may without reproach 
testify to a nation which has nobly vindicated its own liberties. 

We congratulate you upon the downfall of a tyranny elaborately con- 
structed with consummate art, but which has been prostrated in a mo- 
ment by your chivalrous enthusiasm. 

We know not whether most to admire your fiery valor in the hour 
of trial, or your sublime forbearance in the moment of success. 

You have respected religion, and God has, therefore, blessed your 
work. 

Your heroism has taught enslaved nations that emancipation ever 
dwaits those who dare to achieve it by their own intrepidity. 



APPEtois:. 8S9 

By your firm maintenance of public order you have proved that true 
liberty claims no kindred with spoliation and anarchy. 

We hail you henceforth as arbiters of the destinies of mankind — as 
deliverers of the oppressed members of the great human family. 

We, whose nationality was extinguished by the basest arts — we, who 
daily experience the countless evils which result from that unspeakable 
loss — we, the inhabitants of Ireland, now claim your sympathy. 

We have firmly resolved that this ancient kingdom shall once again 
be free and independent. 

In imitation of your example, we propose to exhaust all the resources 
of constitutional action before we resort to other efforts for redress. 

Time will unfold our projects, but we hesitate not to tell you, in an- 
ticipation of the future, that your friendship may increase their efficacy, 
and accelerate their success. 

Our claims to fraternity with you rest upon the proudest traditions 
of your history. 

In other times, in the hour of Ireland's extremest need, your fore- 
fathers tendered shelter and hospitality to our exiled warriors ; and Fon- 
tenoy can testify how well that hospitality was requited by the cheerful 
effusion of Irish blood in maintenance of the glory of France. 

On our own account, as well as upon yours, we shall watch with in- 
tense interest the development of your Republican constitution. 

We augur the happiest results to yourselves and to mankind from 
your determination to found your institutions upon the broadest basis 
— to place them no longer upon privileged classes, but upon the whole 
French nation. 

Consolidate the great work which you have begun. Guaranty the 
rights of property, by securing the rights of industry. Indulge not the 
lust of conquest, but be ever ready to succor the oppressed. Render 
France the centre of European progress, as well in the march of free- 
dom as in the advance of civilization and of the arts. Continue to pre- 
sent to mankind a magnanimous example of manly virtue, and be as- 
sured that, among those who will greet you with applause and admira- 
tion, you will find no more affectionate ally than the people of Ireland. 
[Signed] 

On behalf of the Irish Confederation, 

William S. O'Brien, Chairman of the Coundt, 



390 APPENDIX. 



No. lY. 

Add? ess of the Council of the Irish Confederation to the Ciii' 
zens of Dublin, adopted at the 3feeting held March 15, 
1848. 

Fellow-Countrymen : A slander has gone forth against you. It 
is rumored, by your enemies, that the blind and anarchical riots, which 
have disgraced the great towns of England and Scotland, are to be imi- 
tated among us. 

Wilfully confounding your passionate ardor for the deliverance of 
your country, with these sordid offences against property and order, 
they dare to affirm that your aggregate meeting puts in peril the safety 
of your fellow-citizens. 

And the English Government, which rules this island, ignorant of 
your character, or indifferent to it, have thronged the metropolis with 
troops, and sworn in their English soldiers as magistrates of the city, to 
ovei'awe and dishonor the native citizens. 

Fellow-countrymen, we must disappoint the malice of our enemies. 
"We must guard our sacred cause against surprise or stratagem. 

The Council of the Irish Confederation appeal to you, in the name 
of our coming liberty, to watch over social order. They admonish you 
to be alive to the designs of your enemies, and to permit no provocation 
to tempt you into the most trifling disorder. 

Riot and rashness are the vices of slaves ; free men, or men worthy 
of freedom, are calm, orderly, and resolute. Let us be so. Let every 
good citizen regard himself as one of a future National Guard, bound 
to watch over the order and tranquillity of the metropolis. 

It is not to the vicious excesses of a mob, but to the heroic struggles 
which illumine the Continent, that your eyes are turned. It is there 
you look for examples of how liberty may be won, without outrage upon 
religion, property, or order. 

A majority of all the European states have exacted native indepen- 
dence, or free institutions, from their rulers, wliile we have been strug- 
gling in tlie agony of famine. Many of them conquered by the mere 
aspect of the angry people, before which Tyranny ti-embled and gave 
way ; some of them seized their rights with armed hands ; but all have 
attained their demands. It is beside them we ambition to take our 
place. 

For Ireland, too, has a great part to play — if she do not prove un- 



APPENDIX. 3^1 

worthy of it. Of all the nations, none has suffered so deeply — none 
has made out so clearly her charter to independence, hy the multitude 
of her wrongs, and the hopelessness of all other remedies. Fellow- 
countrymen, it will be some criminal blunder of our own, if Ireland is 
not free as Sicily, and tranquil as France, before a single year has 
passed away. 

But we do not labor for the elevation of class or creed, but for all 
Irishmen ; and our countrymen must be made to feel universally that 
no just interest is periled by our success. This is all that remains to 
be done. Death has raged among us like an invading army — emigra- 
tion has drained our land of wealth and strength; we are justified be- 
fore God and man in refusing to endure our wrongs any longer. Our 
sole duty is to assure and unite all our own people who desire the inde- 
pendence of our country. That done, we can resume our ancient con- 
stitution, though all the foreign nations of the earth forbid it. And 

WE SHALL. 

But we must prove we are worthy of liberty. By forbearance, by 
self-control, by respect for property and order, we must combine with 
us all the good men of Ireland, who desire independence unsullied by 
crimes or excesses. ' 

Riot or tumult at this moment would disgrace our cause, and deliver 
it into the hands of our enemies. Be peaceful, then, fellow-countrymen, 
and patient. Trust to the Confederation to point the time and the M'ay 
to liberty. Day by day we shall advance toward it, and step by step. 
Give our enemies no advantage by rashness, and there shall be no 
backward step in the face of any peril, till our end is attained. 
[Signed] On behalf of the Council, 

Charles Gavan Duffy, Chairman. 



No. V. 



Address adopted at an open air Mass Meeting of the Trades 
and Citizens of Dublin, in " the Fields adjoining the Hi- 
bernian Tavern,'' at the North Wall, March 20, 1848, R, 
O Gorman, sen., presiding. 

To THE Citizens of the French Republic : As slaves should 
addi-ess freemen — as a land which has yet its independence to assert, 
and its social freedom to attain, should address a sovereign state and a 
Republic — we address you, citizens ! 



892! APPENDIX. 

Had we a national government, a recognised centre, willing and corri- 
petent to act and speak for us, it would have long since boldly declared 
the admiration of your heroism, the sympathy with your cause, the de- 
light in your victory, which we feel, but are, from our condition, inca- 
pable of uttering. Foreign dominion and distraction among ourselves 
choke the best and noblest feelings of our hearts, and turn into empty 
wind the voice of millions. 

Receive from us, citizens, all the congratulations we can offer; and 
be assured that beneath them there is much that can not be uttered — 
behind, them the longings and passions of suffering and enslaved men. 
You who have only but yesterday broken through even a mild despot- 
ism, and yet who were compelled to hide in your hearts for eighteen 
years the hate of that despotism which now you have so nobly vindi- 
cated — you, citizens, you can understand us. 

We recognise in the French Republic the work of worthy men. We 
see in its every act justice to the rights of labor ; and its victories, its 
glories, its success, an enduring justice, we, working-men, participate. 

But, enslaved as we are, we can only offer you our individual sym- 
pathy and friendship, and we ask in return that you will look upon the 
sufferings of the eldest and most persecuted sister of our common Celtic 
race with commiseration and sorrow. We ask you not to blush for 
oar shame and our slavery, but to retain for us reciprocal friendsliip 
and sympathy till our liberated country can deserve it. 

RiCHAKD 0' Gorman, CJiairman. 

P. Barry, ^^^ | Secretarie,, 



Barth'w Redmon] 



No. VI. 

Address from (he Council of the Oonfederatiou to the Irish 
Nation^ adopted at a Meeting of the Confederation^ held at 
Music Hall^ DuUin, March 23, 1848, P. J. Barry presi- 
ding. 

Citizens of the Irish Nation: A voice calls you from afar! 
The breath of young nations mingles with your old and holiest aspira- 
tions. Awake ! If your cause must be consecrated by sacrifices, they 
shall not be wanted. 

Three of your truest friends have been already callea to the altar. 



APPENDIX-, 



SOS 



They have g-one with a proud st3p and fearless hearts, because they 
hope — hope in you. 

Citizens, this is the beginning of the end. All is now staked on the 
majesty and the virtue of the people. Be ours the post of suffering — 
yours, the path to liberty, its vindication in the hour of trial, its enjoy- 
ment in success ! 

Be wise, be steady, be prudent, but be bold. One backward step is 
death. Look around, and look within, and ask your hearts if the time 
has not come. From the east and the west — from the north and the 
south, murmurs Freedom's invocation ! Her lessons are read by the 
light of burning thrones — her echoes heard in the footfalls of flying ty- 
rants — and Religion and Peace are her handmaids. Here, too, her cause 
shall be sacred. Here, too, popular virtue shall sanctify popular tri- 
umph. There shall be order, protection, tranquillity. Property and 
life shall find their best security in the generous magnanimity of a lib- 
erated people. 

Stand together, and swear that the time is at hand. Stand together, 
and prepare. Prepare ! — for the trial will require all your firmness. 
The end is in view. Courage, truth, and virtue — and it is already 
yours ! 

So the people be saved, and be free, let us perish! We shall be 
happy. 

- [Signed] Michael Dohent, 

Chairman of the Council. 



No. VIL 

Address of the Medical Students of Dublin to all Irish Stu- 
dents of Science or Art, adopted at a Meeting of the Stu- 
dents' Gluh, held at the Northumberland Buildings, Eden 
Quag, Tuesdag, April 4, 1848, John Savage presiding. 

Fellow-Students : A war is waging at this hour, all over Europe, 
between Intelligence and Labor on the one side, and Despotism and 
Force on the other. Citizen-soldiers are, in every state of Europe, be- 
ing substituted for standing armies, constitutions for the sovereign's 
caprice, or republics for monarchy itself. You have read, in common 
with all the world, the records of these stirring events. You have 
glowed over the annals of the gallantry displayed by the students and 

17* 



394 APPENDIX. 

workmen of Paris — the sturlents and people of Belgium — and the stu- 
dents and burghers of Vienna. Has it never occurred to you that you, 
too, live in a country sorely in need of a revolution 1 — and that you 
might, with advantage to her and glory to yourselves, imitate the heroic 
examples of the JTrench Ecole Polytechnique and the Austrian Ecole des 
Beaux Arts ? For us, the medical students of Dublin, all of us of your 
own class and age, we have unanimously come to that conclusion, and 
hereby invite you to unite with us in resolve, and fraternize with us in 
action. 

We have seen the famine — we have lived in the presence of the pes- 
tilence. We have inquired into the origin of both, and we find that 
both have resulted from the gross misgovernment and spoliation of the 
victims, our brother Irishmen. We find that this country has been, for 
fifty years, under the sole control of state quacks, sent hither from Lon- 
don, and fallaciously gazetted as wise and lawful authorities ; we find 
that, as the number of officials has increased, so has the national mor- 
tality ; and we have traced a distinct connection of effect and cause in 
these two circumstances. We, therefore, have sworn in our souls, and 
by our hopes of honor, fame, and peace, that these poisonous " foreign 
bodies" shall be excised from the land. We ask you to concur in this 
oath, and to prepare to carry it into effect ; we ask you to enlist with 
us in the ranks of the people, not to create a riot, but to achieve a revo- 
lution. 

You know all the facts of the case as well as we do. You are nu- 
merous, energetic, and supple as young ash. The students of Paris and 
Vienna are not braver of heart, or stronger of hand. You are all ac- 
customed to the use of arms, and most of you are armed. There stands 
England, with the Castle at her back — here Ireland before the entrance 
of her ancient senate-house. Join with us — -join with us at once — and 
may God defend the right ! 

We are brief, for time is precious, and we deem it better to make 
gunpowder than orations. Let us coalesce in an " Irish Students' 
Club," grasp each other's hands, know each other's souls, and, while 
the stranger's cavdry are told to whet their sabres, let us also brace oui 
s})irits for the coming day of Freedom, the flashing flag of Freedom — 
' The victor glaive, 

Thf^ mottoes brave, 
May we be there to lead them 1 

That glorinus noon, 

God send it soon, 
Hurrah ft)r Human Freedom ?" 

R. D. Williams, Chairman of the Committee. 



Appendix. 89o 



No. VIII. 



Trish Proclamation^ adopted at a Meeting of the Irish Con- 
federation, held at 3fusic Hall, May o, 1848, Charles H. 
ONeill presiding. 

Whereas, divers persons representing the Government in Ireland 
of Her Majesty the Queen, and in particuLar His Excellency George 
William Frederick, Earl of Clarendon, Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant- 
Gencral and General Governor of Ireland, have, by a certain advertise- 
ment or proclamation, bearing date at Dublin Castle, the 29th day of 
April, 1848, presumed to assume the functions of both judge and jury 
in this kingdom, by declaring the law, without any legal or constitutional 
authority for so doing, and at the same time pronouncing a verdict upon 
the facts without any legal evidence with respect to the election of a cer- 
tain representative body in the said advertisement or proclamation said 
to have been summoned or advised to be elected, under the name of a 
National Council or Council of Three Hundred, in this kingdom; and 
also with respect to a certain requisition or declaration whereby the per- 
sons signing the same declare, " That we are willing to enroll ourselves 
as members of a National Guard, for the purpose of preserving social 
order, and of protecting tliis island against all foes, domestic and for- 
eign ; that we are prepared to furnish ourselves with suitable weapons 
and accoutrements, and are resolved to hazard our lives in defence of 
our country, in case any emergency shall arise which may require our 
services in its behalf" — and which Her Majesty's subjects in this king- 
dom have been invited to circulate and sign : and whereas, the said Na- 
tional Council has not been advised or summoned for any of the pur- 
poses in the act of Parliament hereinafter mentioned, described, or 
defined, and the form and purpose of the same have not yet been at all 
determined or published : and whereas, the advising, inviting, or sign- 
ing of the said requisition or declaration is and are not, and in the nature 
thereof can not be, a " drilling or training of persons to the use of arms, 
or to the practice of military evolutions or exercises," but only an inti- 
mation of willingness and intention at the proper time and place to arm 
and unite for the defence of this kingdom, and the preservation of order 
therein, as the subjects of this kingdom maij constitutionally do, and not 
otherwise : and whereas, the said advertisement or proclamation is calcu- 
lated to excite alarm and misapprehension of the law and fact in the 
minds of Her Majesty's subjects in general, and thereby manifestly tend 



896 APPENDIX. 

to the disturbance of the public peace, and in particular not only by 
false statement of the facts as aforesaid, but also by falsely stating the 
purport and meaning of the a,ct passed in the Parliament of Ireland in 
the thirty-third year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the 
Third (commonly called the Convention Act), therein referred to : and 
whereas, in fact, by the said act of Parliament, these assemblies, com- 
mittees, or other bodies of persons, only, are declared to be unlawful 
assemblies, who "being elected, or in any other manner constituted or 
appointed to represent, or assuming or exercising a right or authority 
to represent the people of this realm, or any number or description of 
the people of the same, or the people of any province, county, city, 
town, or other district within the same," shall be so elected to represent, 
or shall so assume to represent such people, "under pretence of petition- 
ing for, or in any other manner procuring, an alteration of matters estab- 
lished by laio in church or state," and so forth : and whereas, no conven- 
tion or representative assembly, elected, summoned, or held, for any 
other purpose or pretence than that of petitioning for, or in any other 
manner procuring, such alteration as in the said act mentioned, is pro- 
hibited or rendered unlawful by the same, and no convention or repre- 
sentative body has been elected or summoned by or with the authority 
of the Irish Confederation for any such or the like purpose or pre- 
tence ; but a National Convention, or Council of Three Hiindred, has 
been advised to be summoned and elected, without, as yet, defining the 
exact limits to the operations of the same, and such an arrangement of 
those operations may be made, and it is intended to be made, as shall 
in no way subject the same to the prohibition of the said act of Par- 
liament : 

Now, therefore, we, the Council of the Irish Confederation, do hereby 
declare every such National Convention or Council as last aforesaid, 
and every like Convention or Council not being for such purposes or 
under such pretences as by the said act of Parliament so prohibited and 
hereinbefore defined and set forth, and all elections of members or dele- 
gates thereto, and also every such requisition or declaration as afore- 
said, not being a pledge to drill or train, or to be drilled or trained to 
the use of arms, and so forth, and not being any such association for 
drilling or training, as in the said adA^ertisement or proclamation men- 
tioned, to be entirely laioful and within the legal rights of the subjects 
of this realm, under the existing laws of the same ; and we do earnestly 
invite and recommend all Her Majesty's well-disposed subjects in this 
kingdom of Ireland to support and take part in the same by every 
means in their power. 



APPENDIX. 397 

And we warn all Sheriffs, Magistrates, Constables, and other Hef 
Majesty's subjects, who may be seduced or persuaded by the said un- 
lawful and unconstitutional Proclamation of the said Earl of Clarendon 
and his associates, that they are not by law authorized or emjiowered to 
prevent or repress any such Convention, Election, or Requisition, or 
delaration, as last aforesaid, the same being perfectly legal and in no- 
A»ise opposed in spirit or letter to the said acts of Parliament in the said 
Advertisement or Proclamation referred to ; and that if they, or any of 
them, shall illegally interfere to prevent or repress the same, such illegal 
interference will be at their proper peril. 

By order of the Council : 

William S. O'Brien, Chairman. 
Datod at tho Council Rooms of the Irish Cunfedoration, 9 D'Oiier stieef, Dublin, this 
3iJ day of May, 1848. 



No. IX. 

Address of the Irish Students' Club to William Smith O'Brien, 
Thomas Francis Meagher, and John Mitchel, adopted at a 
Meeting of the Glub, May 6, 1848.* 

Gentlemen : We, the Irish Students' Club, deem it a duty, at the 
present moment, to express our feelings toward you. 

While the English Satrap and his satellites attack, in your persons, 
the liberty of all Irishmen — while state prosecutions, gagging-bills, and 
proclamations, are multiplied around us, we feel a pleasure in declaring, 
"open and advisedly," that we entirely sympathi^.e with, and shall, to 
the utmost of our power, support your efforts to restore our lost na- 
tionality. 

Our estimation of your personal sacrifices and public services can 
never be effaced by the slander or the bludgeons of Castle hirelings. 

For our own parts, we are resolved to be free, by any and by all 
means that may become necessary; and if this be felony, rebellion, or 
treason, we are, and desire to be known to all men, as' felons, rebels, 
and traitors. 

To this extent we are decidedly evil-disposed persons, according to 

law; and of our conversion from such evil-courses as you, gentlemen, 

* This was afttM- the riot in Limerick, alluded to in pnge 313, and may be taken as 

a type of the laith expressed in the numberless congratulatory addresses voted to the 

above gnutJemen. 



398 APPENDIX. 

have taught us, by w-orcl and example, there is not the remotest chance 
or possibility. 

We are able to distinguish between law and justice — ideas too often 
conflicting — and which, in Ireland, have long been mortal and seemingly 
irreconcilable enemies. Whenever it is necessary to choose betv/een 
them, we trust that Irish students, thirsting for truth, and adoring jus- 
tice, shall never hesitate to defy and trample every lav/ that despises 
the one, and wars upon the other. 

Guiltless millions perish unavenged ; and when the stricken nation 
murmurs in her lethargy, and raves of the pure airs of freedom — when 
you, gentlemen, give voice to her anguish, resolve, and indignation, the 
foreign tyrant, who has robbed and murdered our people by law, to 
stifle the shrieks of the dying, immediately promulgated new law. Law 
is the poniard with which England stabs her victims, before she undis- 
guisedly proceeds to noonday murder. 

English law, then, however she may affect the antique phrase and 
spotless veil of justice, can never win our respect and obedience. We 
recognise and abhor the strumpet, although she have stolen the robes 
of a vestal. 

Whatever, gentlemen, may be the issue of your approaching trials, 
"according to law," we have already pronounced a verdict in our hearts 
— ^hearts that trust and love you ! — and if our arms can aid you — it be- 
comes young men, untried in battle, to speak modestly — but there is no 
presumption in saying that, should you ever test the sentiments herein 
expressed, we hope to be found not unworthy of our leaders. 
[Signed] On behalf of the Club, 

E. T. Stevenson, President. 
R. D. W1L1.1AMS. 
John Savage, Secretary, 
Kevin O Doherty, 
W. T. Mbylbb. 



APPENDIX. 399 



No. X. 



The Protestant Repeal Association to the Protestants of Ul- 
ster, adopted at a Meeting of the Protestant Repeal Asso- 
ciation, held in the Music Hall, Dublin, May 30, 1848, J. 
.Nuttall, M. D., presiding. 

Protestant Fellow-Countrymen : Nothing is more evident tlian 
that the present state of things fan not continue. We must be either 
absorbed into Great Britain AvhoUy (and that can be only eife-cted by a 
tremendous aggravation of our sufferings), or our Legislature must be 
restored. Neither we nor Great Britain can longer afford the cost of 
maintaining the existing connection by military occupation against the 
will of fully six millions of Her Majesty's subjects, whose disquietude 
prevents, and must continue to prevent, all profitable occupation so long 
as the causes of it remain unremoved. The settlement of this moment- 
ous matter now depends in a great measure on the course which you 
will now pursue. If, clinging to traditionary animosities, or listening 
to the representations of fanatical alarmists, you hesitate to obey the 
impulses of your hearts, and to declai*e Ireland a nation, and not a 
province, and her sons freemen and not slaves, the consequence must 
speedily bo seen in the withdrawal of all the remnant of our institu- 
tions, and in the centralization of all our wealth, strength, and intellect, 
in the now favored portion of Her Majesty's dominions, leaving you and 
us to be mere tillers of the soil, and producers of the means of luxury 
for consumption among foreign masters. 

Fifty years' experience of the Union has shown us that, altliough our 
fields m.ay be better tilled, the condition of both farmer and laborer has 
been deteriorated; that although our trade has increased, it has been 
the losing trade of sending much away, and receiving little in return; 
that a population, double that which we had previous to the Union, ex- 
porting four times as much of the produce of the land, possess individ- 
ually less wealth and fewer comforts than our grandfathers : and that, 
wnile we have lost the self-respect which only belongs to a free people, 
we have failed to obtain even the sordid rewards proposed for our sub- 
mission. 

It is not alone because the Union was a fraud, nor because gross cor- 
ruption was used in effecting it, that we are dissatisfied. If we found 
in that forced partnership our rights — if the toiling peasant might eat 
the food his labor had produced — if the tenant-farmer's long-established 



400 APPENDIX. ^ 

privileges were secure — if the attempt were made to raise up Ireland to 
the level of Ulster, not to reduce Ulster to the level of the other prov- 
inces — we might, perhaps, stifling the aspiration for self-government 
which is natural to every Protestant bosom — stifling the desire of all 
freemen to bequeath free institutions to our children — say to you : "Be 
satisfied ; apply yourselves to the arts of peace, and strive to reap, un- 
der a wise and judicious, though a foreign rule, the blessings of con- 
tentment." But the facts which surround us forbid our entertaining 
even these humble expectations. The laborer dies upon the fields he 
tilled ; the long-established rights, by which you have had security in 
your holdings, and inducement to profitable industry, are daily dimin- 
ished, and will soon disappear. The laws which might afford to your 
southern brethren the opportunity to follow your industrious example, 
have been denied or postponed ; the soil, for want of confidence, lies 
idle, while the men, whose honest labor ought to make it produce 
golden fruits, are mendicants. Can confidence ever be restored while 
the laws are held in contempt 1 Can any friendly feeling exist toward 
laws made by strangers ? 

Then, what shall we say 1 We would say, unite with us. You are 
strong — you are numerous ; but you will never be formidable till you 
are organized. We can not believe you to be anti-national — indeed, we 
know you are not. You may be Orangemen — we delight to know it — 
so are many of us ; and we know enough of Orange principles to have 
the satisfaction of declaring that there is nothing more repugnant to 
Orange principles than the meanness of serving as the garrison of a for- 
eign power in a man's own country. Need we remind you that the 
great Prince, William of Orange — he from whom the Orange Society 
derives its name and principles — fii'st made the name of Orangemen 
illustrious by his resistance to Spanish tyranny in Flanders ? He could 
not brook that the affairs of Ghent and Antwerp should be administered 
from Madrid by strangers to the Flemish people ; and as genuine Orange- 
ism has fallen into disrepute in these days of sycophancy and timid servili- 
ty, we will remind you of some of the sayings of the great founder of Or- 
ange freedom, when first he invited the German states to unite with the 
people of the Low Countries — as we invite you to unite with your fellow- 
countrymen of the other provinces — in getting the management of their 
affairs into their own hands, and taking them out of those of the "base 
Burgundians,*' by whom the laws enacted in Madrid were then admin- 
istered : "If the nobility have complained," said he, " their complaints 
have pi'oved vain to seem troubled rebellion, and the casual giddiness 
of the common people premeditated insurrection of the whole country; 



APPENDIX 401 

in fine, nothing but a pretence to use force against Flanders is now ex- 
pected in Spain, and who could be better chosen to execute such vio- 
lence than the Duke of Alva?— the most haughty-minded man of all 
Spain, Flanders' greatest enemy; he hath begun to raise citadels in the 
chiefest cities, he hath placed garrisons everywhere; no more home 
laws are heard of, but foreign ones — the country is almost unpeopled 
by excitement, imprisonment, and running away, and. nothing but 
gliastly looljs, complaints, misery, desperation, and calamity, to be seen 
everywhere. Now I," he proceeds to say, "am more hated in Spain 
than any other of the Flemish, because of my German spirit; I am held 
to be the contriver of conspiracies, the head of sedition, the firebrand of 
'those countries." Yes, heatlien William of Orange was called a fire- 
brand by the loyal Spanish garrison of the Low Countries in that day 
(as other worthy emulators of his patriotism are now called firebrands 
here) : " therefore," says the great Orangeman, " their anger rages 
against me, and their heaviest punishments are fa-Uen on me ; therefore 
they seek to turn my glory into infiimy — for what greater glory can 
there be than to maintain the liberties of one's own country, and to die 
rather than be enslaved V 

But we can not conclude this exposition. of the sentiments of that 
great man whom Orangemen are most bound to revere, without asking 
your aid in behalf of your southern fellow-countrymen in the very words 
with which he concluded his appeal for the Flemings to the German 
Diet : " The Flemings ex})ect your assistance to escape so sad a slavery, 
and I in their name implore it. Their cause can not be more just or 
more easily helped. It is yours no less than ours. All neighbors will 
take it for their own concernment, and the whole North will favor it; 
and by the title of our being oppressed you shall ever be counted our 
deliverers." 

We have put before you these sentiments of that renowned prince, in 
order to remind you of the generous and noble feelings to which the 
Orange institution is by its very name committed, but not, believe us, 
brethren, with any intention or desire to carry out the parallel, by sug- 
gesting a forcible separation of this country from Great Britain. 

jMcu of the North ! we have said that we desire your co-operation in 
having done with this Union. Believe us, we too are Protestants ; we 
too love our religion, and would at all hazards defend it; but we also 
love our country, and to serve it effectually we must unite with our 
Roman Catholic fellows. Do you hesitate to do this ? — ^}'ou must hesi- 
tate no longer. You will surely believe us when we say that you may 
safely do so. Those who profit by our strife in this unhappy land 



i02 APPENDIX. 

would fain make you believe that the Roman Catholics of the South 
and West can not be depended on — that for any purpose you should 
only join them to be betrayed. We tell you — we who have lived among 
them and know them — that this is a foul aspersion on their character. 
They, like ourselves, honestly and earnestly desire to serve their coun- 
try, and by union to preserve its liberties and our common interests. 
For this purpose they shall have our co-operation, for we know and 
respect them. Shall they not have yours 1 

We could not at this time omit to allude to the unjust treatment 
which an Ulster man has received at the hands of the British Govern- 
ment, and in him we see our most sacred liberties menaced. Need we 
name John Mitchel, with whom we disagree, yet from whom we can 
not withhold our sympathy 1 Neither can we refrain from expressing 
our complete disgust at the shameful manner in which his trial was con- 
ducted, and at the cruel indignities practised upon his person. In con- 
clusion, we most earnestly recommend you to declare your national 
opinions by association, and to do so at once. Let each hamlet and 
town in Orange Ulster have its Protestant Repeal Association, and place 
itself in communication with the central body in Dublin. Believe us, 
brethren, if this be done, your rights are sacred ; and if your tenant- 
right be taken from you, it will be but that it may be restored under 
our local Legislature. 

[Signed] By order of the Meeting, 

J. NuTTALL, Chairman 



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